Kuwait is taking big steps forwards towards signing the international intellectual property rights conventions soon, said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s Assistant Undersecretary for External Trade Abdullah Al-Owaisi.
“Kuwait is about to start the final stage of negotiations with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ink the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works,” Al-Owaisi told KUNA.
He added that the issue is a top priority for the Ministry which will also exert more effort to enhance the enforcement of relevant laws.
He underlined that Kuwait is keen on abiding by all the international intellectual property protections laws and regulations.
Kuwait will mark Saturday the World Intellectual Property Day.
On April 26 every year, the world celebrates Intellectual Property Day in order to promote discussion of the role of intellectual property (IP) in encouraging innovation and creativity.
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in the French capital on 20 March 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property. The Convention is still in force.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
The Berne Convention requires its signatories to recognize the copyright of works of authors from other signatory countries (known as members of the Berne Union) in the same way as it recognizes the copyright of its own nationals. For example, French copyright law applies to anything published or performed in France, regardless of where it was originally created.
In addition to establishing a system of equal treatment that internationalized copyright amongst signatories, the agreement also required member states to provide strong minimum standards for copyright law.
Source : KUNA Kuwait News agency
