A recent seminar stressed the importance of intellectual property rights to small and medium-size enterprises, Sherine Shoukry reports The League of Arab States (LAS) Intellectual Property Unit (IPU) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) met last week at the Arab League's headquarters to discuss the importance of intellectual property for micro, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) as well as for innovation in the region. The event focussed on awareness creation on how intellectual property rights can serve enterprises. "We should not wonder whether intellectual property should be included in the business plan," emphasised Marco Marzano de Marinis, associate legal officer at WIPO's SME Division. "Intellectual property should have a business plan of its own." One of the main issues was the importance of reaching out to SMEs in the region and educating them on registering, licensing and protecting their ideas. Ibrahim Yehia, assistant general manager for the SMEs Development Institution, believes that SMEs in the region still do not have the mechanisms to differentiate or spot an invention, and that it is in the hands of institutions such as WIPO and the Arab League's IPU to help with such matters. "In developed countries, they know they are getting millions out of intellectual property," said Yehia. "In this region, we do not register small ideas." Amr Abdel-Aziz, head of the programme for cooperation in the development sector of Arab countries at WIPO, emphasised the importance of identifying an innovation. "SMEs in Arab countries still think that an invention must be big," said Abdel-Aziz. "Even a small or medium idea can grow into a big business. Arab countries must understand intellectual property, as well as appreciate the weight of SMEs." Abdel-Aziz's argument was underlined when Yehia pointed out that 57 per cent of business projects in the region were SMEs, with 90 per cent of them being micro-enterprises. Bob Hodgeson, CEO of Zernike (UK) Limited, believes that the main way to help SMEs is "by making the market work for them", including stimulating interest among SMEs for intellectual property, stimulating the supply side, training brokers and agents, educating fund managers, and ensuring quality implementation. "Businessmen do not speak research, and researchers do not speak business," said Hodgeson. Abdel-Aziz went on to emphasise that "research and development is very poor in this region; [SMEs'] budget is too small for the research and development department to be effective." Also discussed was the recognition of SMEs' budget in relation to the expenses of intellectual property registration. Marinis believes there are ways to get around the heaviest of expenses, "SMEs have tiny budgets; de facto trademarks and designs have no registration cost but have the same legal weight as the intellectual property system." Marinis appeared to prefer a trade secrets system for businesses rather than a patent system. While patents "impose taxes, have a time limit, and the innovation step is displayed 18 months after the application filing", trade secrets "have no registration cost, have no time limit, and the secret does not have to be displayed". Lawyer Hossam Lotfi disagreed. "In developing and underdeveloped countries, it's very difficult to protect your product just through secrecy; we do not have a culture of secrecy. In this case, we need to find another system to protect our innovations," he said. Marinis underlined the fact that the WIPO and other organisations exist and are willing to help, but that it is a two-way collaboration. "We must be asked to help before we can offer our support," he said. "There is a long path that needs to be fed with strategies and policies. We need your help and cooperation."
