World Intellectual Property Organisation is a specialised agency of the United Nations.

Qatar has won the presidency of the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Union), expanding on its role to fight copyright violations worldwide.

The Berne Union, a UN agency belonging to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), is an agreement by member states to protect works and the rights of authors as well as provides creators with the means to place autonomy over their works under all circumstances.

WIPO member states unanimously agreed to elect Acting Director of the office of Qatar to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ahmed Essa Al Sulaiti as chairman of the Committee of the Union for two years.

They also elected representatives from the United States and Finland as chairman deputies.

The executive committee, which Qatar has now become a part of, oversees the implementation of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886.

Qatar and intellectual property efforts

Qatar’s accession to the Rome Convention in September 2017 finalised its membership in the essential WIPO conventions, which in turn prompted the motion of an era with better intellectual property (IP) protection across the country.

The implementation of the Rome Convention in Qatar is seen as a means to further strengthen the basis for copyright protection in the media and entertainment industry.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce announced the launching of the online trademark registration service through the ministry’s website in November 2017. This was the first step of a gradual implementation of the online IP system in the country.

Qatar and WIPO

Qatar joined the WIPO in 1976.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry signed a Memorandum of Understanding in February with Hamad Bin Khalifa University and the WIPO to boost education in IP law.

The cooperation document was enacted in an effort to transform Qatar into a regional hub in the field of intellectual property education.

WIPO is a global forum for intellectual property policy, services, information, and cooperation. A specialised agency of the United Nations, the WIPO helps its 193 member states in developing a balanced international IP legal framework.