IP/C/R/TC/GCC/1

Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

1  Introduction

1. GCC is an intergovernmental organization with membership of the following states: United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and the State of Kuwait.
2. According to Article 20 of the GCC Economic Agreement which states that "member States shall develop programmes encouraging talented individuals and supporting innovation and invention; cooperate in the field of intellectual property and develop regulations and procedures ensuring the protection of intellectual property rights; and coordinate their relevant policies towards other countries, regional blocs and international and regional organizations", the GCC Secretariat General directs most of its technical cooperation activities to its Members.
3. This document presents a report on main technical cooperation activities undertaken by the Secretariat General of the GCC from 9 September 2019 to 9 September 2020, which are relevant to the intellectual property (IP) issues, following the invitation of the Chairman of the WTO Council for TRIPS to provide updated information on such activities.
4. Technical assistance activities undertaken by the GCC Secretariat General during the above‑mentioned period has focused on various concrete IP aspects such as enforcement of IP laws, patent applications drafting and electronic filing cooperation in IT System, innovation and invention, etc. These activities were conducted in the form of workshops, on-job training, secondment or through supporting the participation in Conferences or in international IP exhibitions. A number of these activities were organized in cooperation with some IP national offices. The said activities are listed in the Annex.
5. The COVID-19 outbreak affected in one way or another the technical cooperation activities undertaken by the GCC Secretariat General during the above-mentioned period.