Riyada signs deal to find protected products, services

Muscat: The Sultanate, represented by the Public Authority for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (Riyada), signed a technical cooperation programme with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to enable SMEs to innovate and find products and services that are protected by intellectual property.
Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Riyada and Francis Garry, Director General of WIPO signed the cooperation programme.
This came during a meeting between the Minister of Commerce and Industry and the Director General of WIPO and the accompanying delegation in his Office on Tuesday.
The meeting also discussed the cooperation between the two sides, reviewed the national innovation strategy prepared with The Research Council (TRC), and the possibility of cooperation to protect the intellectual property rights of the Advanced Research Centre, factory for manufacturing and designing of moulds and production tools which are being set up by the government in collaboration with Sohar University, as part of the inputs of the National Innovation Strategy and the outcomes of the manufacturing sector produced by the National Program for Enhancing Economic Diversification “Tanfeedh”.
The two sides reviewed opportunities to benefit from the services of WIPO in the field of maximising the benefit of the Mars Living Simulation Project, which was implemented in the Sultanate in cooperation with the Austrian Space Forum.
The two sides discussed enhancing technical cooperation in the field of innovation and assigning experts to enhance the government’s efforts in the field of innovation support.
The competencies of the Intellectual Property Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry were increased by increasing the number of intellectual property examiners and experts. The meeting was attended by Eng. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Theeb, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and a number of officials from both sides.
During his visit to the Sultanate, the guest and his delegation will meet with a number of officials from the Sultanate, representatives of the National Business Center and the Industrial Innovation Center, as well as a number of innovative incubators in the Sultanate, such as SAS and OM.HUB incubators, and will meet with innovative students.
The number of applications for “national” and “international” trademarks, patents, copyrights and industrial designs reached 31,043 applications in 2017, 30,410 applications of them for national and international trademarks in the field of “registration, renewal, transfer and licensing of use, modification and publicity”, 391 patent applications, 3,232 applications for international trademarks, 216 copyright applications and 26 industrial designs.