Sheikh Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani and other officials during the opening ceremony of the 2020 International virtual Conference on Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.
Doha: Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) Board Member for International Relations, Sheikh Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani said that laws of intellectual property play a key role in safeguarding the innovations of entrepreneurs, noting that 90 percent of the world economy consist of SMEs and startups.
This came during the opening ceremony of the 2020 International virtual Conference on Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (ICICEE) held on Thursday.
Sheikh Thani also said that Gulf economies adopted strategies to encourage innovation and drive entrepreneurship, in a way that achieves the economic diversification and reduce the dependence on energy revenues, and creates more jobs in the private sector for citizens.
He pointed out that innovation plays a pivotal role in achieving economic growth, stressing that it stimulates the use of new technologies which improve and develop businesses and reduce expenses.
“Innovation enhances competitiveness, as well as promotes partnerships and expand businesses,” he stressed, adding companies that do not adopt innovation are vulnerable to losing their own market share or even leaving the market.
Elaborating the importance of intellectual property laws, Sheikh Thani said that legislation of Arab countries attached a great interest to the intellectual property laws, noting that these laws offer incentives for investment, development, and innovation.
These laws allow one person or entrepreneurs to establish their own companies without resorting to forge partnership with others, thus opening the door for entrepreneurs to establish their own companies easily.
Sheikh Thani stressed the need for protecting innovations of entrepreneurs by the various types of intellectual property such as patents or trade secrets, while inventions the trademarks of products or services are protected by trademark laws.
He also said that disputing parties in intellectual property disputes have recently resorted to alternative means of dispute resolution, including arbitration and mediation, affirming that these means provide swift and confidential settlement of the dispute and allow parties to select arbitrators and mediators with high experience in the subject matter of the dispute.
The two-day virtual conference which was hosted by Kuwait and held with visual communication technology aims to promote entrepreneurship in GCC states and fostering the innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial climate. The forum brought together more than 80 participants from private and public sectors, experts and leading practitioners in innovation and entrepreneurship.
