RIYADH: The Saudi Forum on Intellectual Property kicked off on Monday at the headquarters of King Abdul Aziz for Science and Technology (KACST).
The KACST hosted the event in collaboration with King Saud University and King Abdul Aziz and his Companions Institute for the Gifted (Mawhiba).
A number of intellectuals from the Kingdom and abroad participated in the event dubbed "Patents: from Idea to the Commercialization."
It is being organized as part of the LES Around the World Celebration for the protection of intellectual properties.
According to KACST regulations, a patent is an exclusive protection document granted for an invention or for granting protection of documents, layout designs of integrated circuits, plant varieties and industrial designs in the Kingdom.
It aims to provide protection for industrial property in the fields falling within KACST responsibilities.
They include filing and examining industrial property applications, granting industrial property rights, developing national database for industrial property rights, publishing documents of industrial property rights, promoting creativity and raising industrial property awareness.
The same regulation explains the terms and conditions when a patent will not be granted or a protection document will be withheld if its commercial exploitation violates Shariah.
Other cases under which the protection document will not be granted are those when their commercial exploitation is harmful to life, to human, animal or plant health, or is substantially harmful to the environment
In his opening remarks, KACST President Abdullah Al-Suwayl said the total number of patents had increased to 17,270 since the acceptance of the applications in 1989, while the number of applicants who have been granted patents had reached 2,900.
He added that the number of processed, rejected and lapsed applications was 15,478, representing 89 percent of the total applications.
According to Al-Suwayl, these figures show the Kingdom's keenness (represented by KACST) to accomplish the submitted patents applications.
The number of granted industrial design certificates has increased to 2,225 certificates, while lapsed patent applications are 2,936 or 90 percent from the total applications of 3,272, he said, adding that the processing period takes two and a half to three years, which is a world standard.
The good news, he said, is that the launch of electronic innovation project will be of great help in making communications faster for the applicants. With this, applicants are note required to come themselves to the city.
Al-Suwayl emphasized that the Kingdom is fully aware of the significance of the intellectual properties and its role in preserving the rights of the inventors and innovators and the vital role they are playing in the interest of economic growth.
He stressed that since the beginning of the Kingdom's membership of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1982, it has been striving to safeguard the rights of inventors and innovators.
On his part, the head of the WIPO Innovation and Technical Transmission, Ali Jazairi said that the World Day for Intellectual Properties is a great opportunity to celebrate the contribution of intellectual properties on cultural innovation and invention. This social phenomenon also marks the sector's contribution for the benefit of the world.
On this occasion, the KACST head launched the electronic website of the intellectual property, during which he also honored the patents holders from Al-Maktab Al-Saudi for the year 2011. On her part, Princess Masha-el bint Mohammed honored the female achievers on behalf of Al-Maktab Al-Saudi during which she expressed her high appreciation and gratitude on this occasion.
The first session on Intellectual Properties and the Society on Monday was presided over by Mohammad Al-Ajlan and dealt with three scientific papers. The first paper by Mohammad Al-Areefi discussed preserving intellectual properties on the basis of Shariah.
Another speaker was the former undersecretary at Ministry of Commerce, Fawaz Al-Alami who gave statistics on university education or higher education rates in the Middle East in the period 2001-2011 period, pointing out that education in South Korea has shot up to 95 percent while it declined to 31 percent in the Middle East and 26 percent in the Arab world.
He said that during the same period, the total number of researchers in the world increased from six to 11 million. Developed countries have achieved 62 percent from this increase while developing countries, including Arab states, could achieve only 38 percent.
© Arab News 2012
