Ministry helping innovators bring their ideas to fruition

Muscat: Oman’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) is making huge efforts to help innovators in conducting preliminary research of their ideas so that they can arrive at a successful conclusion.
This is so that innovators know the potential of their ideas and the possibility of protecting them by comparing their ideas to those that are similar to or match those present in international patent databases, so that their research is conducted in the right direction, helping them save their efforts, money and time as well as prevent duplication of already existing ideas
The ministry also gives technical advice to the innovators, regarding the utilisation of existing patents in various databases of their inventions. These patents contain technical information and scientific ability towards the development of local patents, making the transfer of technology from this invention easy, so that many can benefit from it locally.
These services made available by the ministry help provide an environment conducive for innovators and encourage them to continue to come up with new ideas, while at the same time, help protect their rights.
Ruqaiyyah bint Mohsin Al Harrasiah, a patent specialist at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said: “The massive spread of the coronavirus in many countries of the world led to a new reality and challenge which pushed everyone to use their maximum creative potential in the pursuit of vaccines, medical examination methods and preventive and surveillance tools.
“This also led to the remodelling of technology to enable people to work or study from home, and monitoring diseases, as well as devise new ways and means to help fight the deadly epidemic,” she added. “Many innovations came as new technical solutions or improvement of previous inventions. They included the means for early detection of diseases, methods of sterilization, and tools to aid in the prevention of the virus, as well as electronic applications related to it.”
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the number of patent applications registered remotely during April and May were 35, from a total of 162 applications. Of them, 12 applications were for patents related to countering the effects of the coronavirus, in terms of the scientific, technical, and preventive efforts made to confront the virus. There are other applications under the process of registration and experts are doing follow-ups of these applications.
There have also 20 applications to register products under trademarks during this period, including those of electronic applications which provide services to society. Three applications were filed for written works. Due to the inability to so far develop a medicine or vaccine to cure the coronavirus, being infected from it has emerged as a major concern.
This has prompted many individuals and institutions in various sectors to bring out hundreds of new innovations, whether tools, devices or systems, to confront the threat of coronavirus transmission and its prevention.