April 8 and 9, 2014 : Experts from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia met with the counterparts at the EPO and at the WIPO in Vienna

The ARABPAT project was initiated in June 2012 when the Patent Offices of the four countries Members of the Agadir Agreement – Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia – agreed in Amman to deepen their co-operation in the field of industrial property.

The publication of the patent documents from these countries was seen as an important missing support to the regional    innovation.

Further, the possibility to publish this patent information in all the official languages used in the region: Arabic and French, but also in English, would be key to the worldwide access to and to the valorisation of this patent documentation.

In a last step, the extension of the project to all the interested Arabic speaking countries would consolidate these efforts at the scale of the complete Arab region. With a GDP of US$2.759 trillion and a total population of 362.5 million (2012), the Arab region is potentially an emerging economic regionin which industrial property will play a role of growing importance.

The ARABPAT project was formalised in October 2012 through the signing of a technical memorandum of understanding between the EPO, the OMPIC and the WIPO. The three partners agreed to develop the technical environment and to set up the platform that would support the project. The patent data published by the participating Offices is formatted according to the WIPO standards, exchanged between the Offices and published on the ARABPAT platform that is an ESPACENET server adapted to the Arabic language. This  documentation is also published on the Patentscope of the WIPO and on the worldwide ESPACENET of the EPO.

The expert meeting last April in Vienna was the occasion to discuss the progresses and to analyse the remaining challenges in exchanging and formatting data as well as in the final set up of the technical platform.

It seems that before the summer, the ARABPAT server will be fully operational and available to the public. The formatting and the exchange of data between the participating Offices is also on a very good track. Before the end of the year, it is expected that the almost complete collection of patent data from the four countries will be available on this platform.

The meeting was also the occasion to welcome the Saudi Patent Office as an observer. The partners agreed on a mechanism based on an ARABPAT charter that would permit new countries to join the project.

The pending work will be reviewed in November during the next expert meeting. By the end of 2014, the partners will be in a position to integrate ARABPAT in their patent awareness and patent training programmes.

If you want to learn more on ARABPAT: contact@arabpat.com