Over 9,000 applications received for trademarks, patent registrations

Muscat: The number of applications for registering "national" and "international" trademarks, patent of invention, copyright and related rights, industrial designs and models, and PCT international applications submitted to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP)in 2020 reached 9,938 applications, according to statistics issued by the Intellectual Property Department at MoCIIP. 

Statistics show that the submitted applications included 9,242 applications for national and international trademarks, 529 for national and international applications for patents, 10 for industrial designs & models, 146 for copyright, and 11 for international applications through the PCT system.

MoCIIP confirms that the Ministerial Decision 206/2018, which cuts patent service fees for industrial property rights for students of schools, colleges and universities and researchers in research centres by 90% and for small and medium enterprises by 50%, is considered an incentive factor for registering national patents. It also facilitates the submission and registration procedures, where the inventor can benefit from the patent fees reduction in developing innovations works.

The Ministry also points out to the importance of the role played by patent examiners at the Intellectual Property Department to assist inventors in drafting applications for registering initial searches and providing advice to them regarding the importance of registering and protecting their patents. The applications submitted by Omanis to obtain patents registration in 2020 reached 90 requests.