HBKU hosts WIPO official to explore IP protection for QF innovations

HBKU hosts WIPO official to explore IP protection for QF innovations

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)’s College of Law recently hosted ambassador Hasan Kleib, deputy director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), for a working visit with Qatar Foundation (QF) leaders, senior officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), and Qatar’s office to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Discussions focused on efforts to strengthen Qatar’s national innovation ecosystem through a robust framework of intellectual property (IP) protection. A particular focus was the role of IP in sustaining QF’s unique research and innovation ecosystem, which contributes to Qatar’s competitive and diversified economy in the form of technologies and other high-value IP that address needs in artificial intelligence, genomics, precision medicine, sustainability, and other areas.

Dr Francisco Marmolejo, president of Higher Education at QF, and Dr Michael J Benedik, HBKU provost, presented welcoming remarks. In his response, ambassador Kleib shared WIPO’s vision of IP as a driver of growth and development. He highlighted areas of future co-operation to promote education in IP law, following a memorandum of understanding signed between WIPO, MoCI, and HBKU in February 2022.

Qatar’s national IP protection strategy, international commitments, and growing role worldwide were the focus of presentations by Saleh al-Mana, Director of International Co-operation