Muscat, September 6 (ONA) - The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, in cooperation with the relevant authorities, seeks to discuss intellectual property policies in protecting geographical indications and traditional knowledge, preserving and protecting marine and animal products, including the treasures they contain that contribute to advancing the national economy as well as raising societal awareness about the importance of geographical indications and the need to register them under names appropriate to their characteristics, whether they are natural or industrial.
The Intellectual Property Department emphasized that the protection of geographical indications sectors aims to protect the environment and biological diversity of an origin, good or service, and is mainly attributed to the geographical area where goods are produced, developed and processed, whose original origin is that geographical place that has affected and been affected by natural and human factors. The Ministry seeks to ensure that registrable products conform as a geographical indication to prevent the occurrence of random registration and protect the interests and rights of producers and professionals.
Fatima bint Khalfan Al Baloushi, a biotechnology patent specialist at the Intellectual Property Department at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment Promotion said that the term “geographical indication”, which is what is included in the Protection Law, means that a commodity that originated in the geographical area and acquired the quality, features and identity of that region through its connection to that region and thus it is attributed to the place where it arose naturally or was produced.
Fatima Al-Baloushi added that the Omani law gave industrial property legal rights to the applicant for protection for the geographical indication, stressing that the ministry is conducting discussions with the relevant authorities to protect the products that deserve protection as geographical indications.
She pointed out that the optimal use, as required by the interest of the market and the consumer's need for these internationally marketable products, contributes to raising the quality of products in addition to the competitive advantages over agricultural products and handicrafts. These sectors give producers of countries whose economic visions have articulated the opportunity to expect income from these high-quality products. She pointed out that among the protected and unprotected products in the Sultanate to designate the origin are Omani frankincense, Omani mountain thyme plant with different characteristics, lemon which is famous for its cultivation in some wilayats in the governorates of the Sultanate and the pomegranate of Jabal Al Akhdar, in addition to abalone, which is one of the animal wealth that characterizes the seas of the Sultanate, in addition to Omani dishdasha, Omani halwa, the method of making Omani shiwa and other handicraft and traditional products.
Fatima Al Baloushi said that geographical indications are an effective tool in drawing local strategies, especially by contributing to quality and source standards in promoting the geographical location on a large scale. She indicated that countries are actively seeking to protect such products to prevent others from practicing them in all ways and forms of practice, whether it is selling, manufacturing, illegal acquisition, or attributing them to a source other than their original origin.
(ONA)