The UAE Ministry of Economy in coordination with the Business Software Alliance, the world's foremost advocate for the software industry, recently organised a workshop in Dubai to discuss latest measures to enhance protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and tackle software piracy in the UAE.
The workshop featured presentation of working papers by the National Media Council, the Judicial Training and Studies Institute, the General Department of Criminal Investigations of Dubai Police, Dubai Customs, local law firm Khasawneh & Associates, Microsoft and Adobe.
Abdullah Al Hussain, Director of Censorship Department, UAE Ministry of Economy pointed out that the workshop is part of the Ministry's continuous efforts to protect intellectual property rights and combat software piracy in cooperation with different public and private entities.
"The significant economic benefits of reducing software piracy underline the importance of a sustained and concerted effort to tackle this problem. Workshops such as these, that involve representatives from both government departments and the private sector, go a long way in identifying the most effective measures that can be taken to enhance the protection of intellectual property rights," said Al Hussain.
Al Hussain called for more efforts to improve cooperation and coordination between government bodies and the private sector in combating pirated goods and products, raising the level of awareness about their risks on health and safety, and enhancing development and training in these fields.
He also underscored the importance of cooperation between the Ministry of Economy and various bodies including brand and trademark owners to further IPR protection through the sharing of information and experience. This would limit the negative effects resulting from counterfeiting and piracy.
Results of an annual software piracy study conducted by the BSA in partnership with the IDC, the leading global IT market research and forecasting firm, reveal that reducing software piracy creates a ripple effect throughout the economy, generating new spending on related information technology (IT) services and distribution. That spending, in turn, creates jobs and delivers new tax revenues -- and the faster the reduction in software piracy, the greater the returns.
Jawad Al Redha, BSA Chairman, Gulf Region, said, "This workshop, organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, was an ideal platform for us to discuss new ways to combat software piracy in the country and to examine the challenges we jointly need to address to reduce the UAE's piracy level. As far as fighting software piracy and protecting intellectual property rights are concerned, the UAE has been setting an excellent example for other countries in the region to follow, and we thank the Ministry for their strong support to our various initiatives aimed at achieving this."
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About BSA:
The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the world's foremost advocate for the software industry, working in 80 countries to expand software markets and create conditions for innovation and growth. Governments and industry partners look to BSA for thoughtful approaches to key policy and legal issues, recognizing that software plays a critical role in driving economic and social progress in all nations. BSA's member companies invest billions of dollars a year in local economies, good jobs, and next-generation solutions that will help people around the world be more productive, connected, and secure. BSA members include: Adobe, Altium, Apple, Asseco Poland S.A., Attachmate, Autodesk, AVEVA, Bentley Systems, CNC, Corel, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, DBA Lab S.p.A., Mamut, Microsoft, NedGraphics, Progress Software, O&O Software, Scalable Software, Siemens, Symantec, Tekla and The MathWorks.
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