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Unesco symposium pushes copyright protection
[April 16, 2006]

Unesco symposium pushes copyright protection


(Kuwait Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)KUWAIT: The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) is celebrating its 60th anniversary. On this occasion, Unesco is holding some educational symposiums in Kuwait. Yesterday, the second seminar titled 'Intellectual Property Rights' was held at the Sheraton Hotel. A huge number of school students and members of the Civil Defence attended the seminar. There are 191 member states of Unesco in addition to six associate members. "60 years of hard work helped the world to stand up after the disaster in 1945. We went on to bring a brighter future for civilisation every year. Unesco is bringing all of the education, natural sciences, human sciences, culture and communication together and it reflects in its work," said Dr Hasan Safar, from the Kuwait National Committee of Unesco. Unesco is not only not only planning and organising activities in these fields. Unesco is also working on solving modern problems to ensure peace, development, and environmental protection. "One of these problems is the intellectual property, which has become an important and deep international problem. Since the Kuwait National Committee of Unesco was established in 1979, it is following its mission and the goals it was established for," Safar added.



Intellectual Property is not controlled by one authority in Kuwait and is diversified. "The Ministry of Information is providing the legal consultation and is informing the public about copyrights breaches. We should work along with the Ministry of Education in this field, as the youth in Kuwait are the largest category buying and using pirated CDs," said Ibraheem Al-Nouh, the assistant undersecretary for press and publication affairs at the Ministry of Information. Intellectual Property began to be protected in Europe in the 19th century, but it started late in the Arab region. "Intellectual property is any creative idea, which could be a sign, name, publication, or other. Also, recently smells and tastes have been added to agreements and laws. In Kuwait, the protection is applied on two categories; industrial property such as the trademarks and others that are controlled by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. And the second are the art material properties that follow the Ministry of Information," Al-Nouh added.

Kuwait joined the International Intellectual Property Rights Organization in 1999. Now it is also a member of many different international and regional organisations, such as the World Trade Organization. The Ministry of Information is the authority that represents Kuwait in attending international conferences. The ministry also inspects stores that sell copyrighted material. The ministry also represents the State of Kuwait in court. The ministry has many achievements in this issue. "The ministry published a book on this matter, and it held the first national conference about the intellectual property rights in 2001. The ministry also held some exhibitions. The ministry confiscated tens of thousands of items up to 2004, executed by 40,000 raids," Al-Nouh further said.


The Ministry of Interior plays an important role in protecting intellectual property rights. This issue is controlled by the law number 64/1999. And the sanctions are included in Article 42 of the criminal law. The sanction is set for KD 500 and imprisonment for up to one year, or one of these two. The Ministry of Interior conducts raids and confiscates pirated CDs and DVDs. "The ministry also follows the source of this material, and confiscates it. Between the years 2000-2003, the ministry confiscated 90,000 CDs and videotapes. And between the years 2004-2006 the numbers reached 80,000. So the total number from 2000-2006 is 170,000," said Colonel Mahmoud Al-Tabbakh, the head of the moral guidance at the General Criminal Investigation Department.

There are certain suggested solutions. "Control must be increased at the stores, as well as inspection campaigns. The law should be changed and the sanctions must be increased. Also, there should be an international committee to follow this issue," Al-Tabbakh noted.

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