As the world started to become more sustainable through achieving the UN 17 sustainable development goals, the MENA region has really moved forward in that regard and is getting more and more closer to having a sustainable economic development. As they are trying to shift the core motor of their development from having natural resources and foreign investments to having a real national innovation movement and starting to build the economy through innovative SME’s, that hopefully will become the companies of the future, they change the strategical approach of the major companies from just importing and working through franchise contracts to focusing on products, which can’t be achieved without building a strong IP society.

This long time target is now addressed directly, especially after the 2020 pandemic, when MENA region’s governments started to give full support to IP innovators by setting strong national IP strategies and executing them directly. This happened by singing new IP laws and enforcing more and more IP treaties with international organizations like WTO and WIPO as well as achieving a good implementation through the continued updating of national laws encouraging innovation and scientific research. With practical implementation steps like in Egypt and drafting new laws corresponding with the ongoing innovations such as AI in Saudi Arabia, in addition to spreading IP knowledge and awareness through collaborations with WIPO, like establishing WIPO Technology and Innovation Support Center (58 centers in Egypt only), and opening IP training institutions in more countries in the region, they raised the number of IP registered innovations (of all IP types) by residents significantly. Proving the significant development taking place and Egypt and Saudi Arabia just jumped in the annually published WIPO Global Innovation Index report in 2024, where Egypt is at place 96 and Saudi Arabia at place 47.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as they are the headquarters of a lot of strong regional companies, are leading the region by effectively executing their national IP strategy and by starting to build IP hubs to centralize and execute the national IP strategy of enforcement, protection and awareness through one authority following Singapore approach to IP. Saudi Arabia in 2018 established the SAIP office which didn’t only take the role of a regular patent office, but started after 2020 to deal with the enforcement and protection of all types of IP and to work regionally and internationally in spreading IP awareness through opening its own IP Academy in 2022 and executing in collaboration with WIPO the first summer school last month. On the other hand Egypt, which was already on track and has much stronger IP infrastructure, started to do the same with the establishment of the Egyptian Authority of Intellectual Property in 2023 and is also spreading IP awareness through collaborating with WIPO through its National Intellectual Property Academy (NIPA), e.g. they finished their online search and examination course tailored for African countries just last month. Additionally, the UAE and the gulf region, which are also following this way and starting to implement national IP strategies in their economies, establish a protective innovation approach for all the companies working in their countries.

That approach of course was led by WIPO, through its online Distance Learning programs, in which many of MENA region officials and researchers participated and learned about IP. Since then the awareness about IP has flourished everywhere in the MENA region as mentioned above, which led to action on site, e.g. national and regional business workshops, seminars, conferences and exhibitions, where innovation is moved forward from an academic topic to a real IP right. Also places to negotiate and deal with IP, like the annual Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival in UAE and the Techne Summit in Egypt, where innovations and creative ideas compete with each other to win several types of assistance and support, moved forward with this approach. Also, live competitions took place on regional TV networks like Shark Tank Egypt and Shark Tank Dubai, in which IP communication is being used perfectly.

On the other hand and businesswise, all this salient work reflects the MENA region’s determination to advertise IP in the business world and to overcome all the old obstacles through building a community of entrepreneurs and SMEs. Egypt’s central bank for example started to fund intangible assets to the increasing number of accelerators and incubators in last five years in the MENA region. The support of entrepreneurs and startups to enter the business world and become a part of it as well as to achieve eventually an economic sustainable development, e.g. that’s what we have seen of startups launched from incubators like Oasis 500 in Jordan and S3 in UAE and even in countries like Syria, which is recovering after a longtime conflict with the help of the UNPD accelerating programs, made a real impact and changed on site the mentality of the people. Protecting IP and innovative products and services started to be part of the economic system and companies started to have an IP business strategy, even if it is still only at C-level.

This remarkable effort and hard work followed and corresponded with international academic work and research in the world of IP, as IP awareness can’t come without IP education, where you get access to legal und business information, and getting deep into the mechanisms, theories and methodology of IP in all the fields of science. As a result, MENA region’s specialists started to look for and research this IP knowledge and to study IP in international institutions like the CEIPI, which is the leading research center of IP in Europe. There you can get access to reliable knowledge to become an IP specialist (consultant, trainer, analyst or attorney) in CEIPI’s IP and IP management programs.

They are offering Diploma, Master and PhD Degree programs in IP and IP management, and they spread IP knowledge to all international students with their online distance learning programs, e.g. the CEIPI-EPO Diploma in IP business Administration (DU IPBA) and the official online platform IP business Academy. They created an active international online IP community on their website and their official LinkedIn page, spreading knowledge and exchanging ideas and perspectives in the professional IP world. This international education concept was followed by local institutions in the MENA region like Halwan University in Egypt, the national institution for Intellectual Property, which can be considered as the only IP research center in the MENA region to offer Master and PhD studies about IP for any technical background. It’s starting to take its role in encouraging innovation in all faculties and spreading IP knowledge among undergraduates. Other examples are the Umm AlQura University in Saudi Arabia, which launched in 2024 its own Executive Master Degree program in IP in collaboration with SAIP and WIPO, and ENSTAB in Carthage, Tunisia, joining forces with both WIPO and CEIPI to teaching master students in innovation engineering and technology transfer (MIETT).

All of that and a lot more, me and Program Coordinator Tobias Denk discussed with the former candidate for the presidency of Egyptian Intellectual Property Authority, an IP consultant in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and WIPO authorized trainer, the IP expert Mohamad Mostafa Amer in the following interview.

About the interviewee:

Mohamed Mostafa Amer is a former candidate for the presidency of Egyptian Intellectual Property Authority, a WIPO Authorized Trainer, Expert, and tutor at WIPO Academy, IP Regional Consultant of the Capacity Building Model Project for the Technology Sector of Saudi Arabia (SAIP-WIPO), IP Expert for WIPO TOT Program of the Syria Center of Intellectual Property, IP Expert at the Emirates Intellectual Property Association (EIPA), and Senior Patent Examiner at the Egyptian Patent Office (EGPO). In addition for being a Lecturer of Intellectual Property Rights – for the MPM program – at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Tanta University, he is also the Founder of IP Awareness LIVE Broadcast #عامر_والملكية_الفكرية on social media.

About the author:

Zella Bulbulian is an innovation consultant in the Innovation and Technology Transfer office at the University of Aleppo with knowledge and expertise in the field of intellectual property and several certificates from WIPO Academy. Working together is her motto, working hard with commitment is her way, learning every single day is her goal. She is a mechanical engineer with a Master degree in energy management and worked as sales engineer for years.