IPR WORKSHOP IN DUBAI BRINGS TOGETHER REGIONAL JUDGES AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBAI 000326 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/18/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV TSPL ETRD XI ZP TC SUBJECT: IPR WORKSHOP IN DUBAI BRINGS TOGETHER REGIONAL JUDGES AND BUSINESS CLASSIFIED BY: Jason L. Davis, Consul General, Consulate Dubai, State Department. REASON: 1.4 (b),(e) 1.(U) Summary: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) organized and held a "Judicial Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Enforcement", in Dubai from January 16-18. The training workshop was funded through the U.S. Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and sponsored by USPTO, MEPI and the UAE Ministry of Justice. It aimed to build capacity and encourage enforcement of IPR under the TRIPS Agreement. On the margins of the workshop, a GM IPR investigator provided a relatively positive assessment of IPR enforcement in the Northern Emirates (see para 5). End Summary. IPR Training, Networking -------------- ¶2. (U) More than 40 judges from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE participated in a MEPI funded, USPTO-run workshop in IPR enforcement held January 16-18 in Dubai. Due to the government shutdown after the death of Dubai Ruler Sheikh Maktoum, the Yemeni participants were not able to get UAE visas in time to attend the conference. The program was led by three USPTO personnel, with three sitting U.S. judges, judges from Egypt and the UAE, as well as representatives from General Motors, Proctor and Gamble, Microsoft, and the Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance also giving presentations. The seminar was simultaneously translated into Arabic and French. 3.(U) The program featured presentations, panel discussions, group discussions and case studies on types of intellectual property, standards for protecting and enforcing IPR under TRIPS and recent free trade agreements, alternative dispute resolution and judicial mediation, calculation of damages, handling confidential information, requests for emergency relief and SIPDIS other related topics. The workshop also served to help judges from across the MEPI region build networks. 4.(U) Two Arabic language UAE newspapers gave positive coverage to the event. Dr. Mohamed Al Kamali, Director General of the UAE Ministry of Justice Judicial Training and Studies Institute, a presenter at the seminar, told Al-Ittihad newspaper the UAE's regulations pertaining to anti-piracy are considered highly preventive and provide a healthy business environment for legitimate trading. He stressed that the UAE seeks to break into the top 10 lowest piracy-rate countries in the world; in 2004 UAE ranked 16th and led all MENA countries, according to a study by the International Data Corporation. IPR Enforcement in the Northern Emirates -------------- 5.(C) In a sidebar discussion during the workshop, Warren Hayday, Investigations Manager at General Motors' Africa and Middle East division, spoke to PolEconoff about counterfeit automobile parts in the northern Emirates. Hayday, who works directly with customs or the economic departments in the various emirates, pronounced himself quite satisfied with the relationships. When Hayday provides specific derogatory information to authorities, they generally have a good, if at times slower than desired, response time. GM rarely seeks to prosecute offenders, relying instead on confiscating parts and on the imposition of standard fines by the emirates. Authorities allow him to videotape the destruction of the counterfeit goods. GM provides training on how to identify counterfeit parts to authorities at ports in the northern emirates, most recently in Ajman. Hayday stressed that although some sales of counterfeit parts do occur in the Emirates, a larger problem is UAE's role as a transshipment point to Saudi Arabia. He claims that all of the ports in Dubai and the northern Emirates, as well as the associated free zones, are used to transship counterfeit parts. BURNS DAVIS