The UAE is a leader in IPR security. The entire nation is driven towards innovation and imagination as they are the premises for improving UAE economy into an understanding economy. In line with the strategic development plans, mainly the UAE Vision 2021 and Dubai Plan 2021, IPR defense gains much higher value due to our leadership's initiatives to promoting development, particularly marking 2015 as the Year of Innovation, per the instructions of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the launch of the National Innovation Strategy by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

These statements were made by H.E. Ahmed Mahbooob Musabih, the Director of Dubai Customs, in his keynote speech at the 5th Conference on the Fight Against Intellectual Property Crime in MENA. The conference, held under the patronage and in presence of H.E. Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan, the Deputy Chairman of Police and General Security in Dubai, at Armani Hotel- Dubai on Monday, November 16, 2015, was organized collectively by the Emirates Intellectual Property Association (EIPA), Interpol and Dubai Customs. The conference saw huge participation of government and personal entities concerned in IPR defense.

The Director of Dubai Customs praised the efforts of the Emirates Intellectual Property Association and the Interpol in raising IPR awareness at a larger scale. He pointed that this symposium provides a fantastic chance for sharing understandings on how they can work together to efficiently combat counterfeiting, and safeguard the society from such growing worldwide hazard.

"Ever given that the United Arab Emirates was founded, the country has paid utmost interest to validating all pertinent worldwide arrangements. The UAE formally ended up being a member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation back on September 24th 1974. After joining the WIPO, the UAE has actually carried out all of the company's treaties in an interval manner," H.E. Ahmed Mahboob said.

"The world is becoming a smaller location more than it's ever been, and global trade is significantly increasing, due the recent ICT revolution. IPR protection has actually become an important aspect to ensure totally free circulation of products in between all 4 corners of the world. This-- undoubtedly-- requires improved, highly-efficient anti-counterfeiting measures and much better collaborated efforts amongst regional firms at one hand, and in between the 188 WIPO member states on the other, in order to punish piracy and counterfeiting," he added. The broad popularity of fakes presents a significant challenge that is adversely impacting the growth of international trade. Musabih elaborated that the World Chamber of Commerce estimates the around the world volume of fake items trade at about 654 billion US dollars. The wide flow of counterfeits costs the international economy sectors a lot; the IT sector alone stands a loss of 100 billion USD yearly, while fake and substandard medicines cost pharmaceutical business around the globe 46 billion USD. Furthermore, the damage borne by people purchasing fake car spare parts is around 12 billion USD.

"IPR-related contracts enable patent owners to enjoy an adequate defense of their developments, in accordance with clear, complete standards worldwide, namely the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with more than 145 finalizing states. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention all at once in a a great deal of countries by filing a single 'global' patent application instead of submitting a number of different nationwide or local patent applications. According to a recent WIPO report, the PCT took a look at 214,500 patent applications submitted in the year 2014, representing an increase of 4.5 % over 2013. On the other side, global hallmark applications grew to a record of 47,885 in 2014, up by 2.3 % from 2013," Musabih expounded.
Dubai Customs seeks ideal defense of the neighborhood against the severe results of fake and illegal trade. This is generally done by establishing and presenting most current clever IT applications in custom-mades examination. The Risk Engine, the Advanced Container Scanning System and the Smart

Baggage Inspection System are just the best of the best.
These in-house-developed systems, according to Musabih, have actually commendably improved DC's assessment processes and enhanced its storage capacity to spot fakes. Between 2012 and 2014, Dubai Customs scored 756 seizures of IPR infringing items. And during the first 9 months of 2015, DC personnel carried out 101 seizures of such illegal goods. Dubai Customs strives to engage all community sectors in the battle versus counterfeiting and piracy, through raising public awareness and informing people about the damages of fakes on consumers, manufacturers and traders. "From early 2012 until end of September 2015, we carried out a total of 110 IPR awareness seminars, which were gone to by 4,600 people. For the same duration, we arranged around 16 workshops on methods for detection of fakes, with 446 participants from different federal government agencies tasked with combating counterfeits," the Director of Dubai Customs added.

"We are specially targeting youngsters in our IPR awareness drive. The annual Dubai Customs IP Award for Schools and Universities has drawn participation from 54 schools and universities, with student bodies of 37,800 people, in the last 4 editions from 2012 to 2015," Musabih concluded.
On the other hand, the first working session at the conference included a discussion by Dubai Customs' IPR Director Yousuf Ozair Mubarak on DC's endeavors in IPR security and combating fake. The discussion highlighted DC's efforts in working together with other government entities through the unified IP federal government work team, which fulfills routinely to share details and experiences in assistance of the state's dedication to IPR security. Dubai Customs' partnership with the economic sector to battle fakes was also dealt with.