Page 78 - MINISTRY OF CULTURE PR REPORT - FEBRUARY 2025

the UAE has proactively joined international treaties and established fruitful partnerships to protect
intellectual property rights and support the growth of businesses and activities within creative sectors such
as culture, arts, music, and literature,” His Excellency concluded.

Furthermore, he shared impressive statistics achieved by the intellectual property sector in the UAE by the
end of 2024. Among the key figures, over 370,000 national and international trademarks are registered in the

UAE markets, and over 21,000 intellectual works have been registered. Additionally, nearly 24,500
applications for intellectual work registration were received, and the total number of patents registered in the
country exceeded 6,100. Moreover, over 9,500 industrial designs have been registered. His Excellency also

highlighted the success of the Anti-Piracy Lab, launched by the Ministry last year to block websites violating
intellectual property and copyright laws, which has successfully shut down 4,076 infringing websites.

Prominent role

In a video address shown at the ceremony, Anita Huss, President of the IFRRO, affirmed the federation’s

support for the Emirates Reprographic Rights Management Association, commending the association’s
significant role in raising awareness of copyright and intellectual property rights in the UAE and the wider
region.

She said: “We are proud to be hosting the first International Reprographic Rights Conference in the UAE
under the patronage of Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, with whom I have always had the honour of
engaging in fruitful discussions on the pivotal role of intellectual property in supporting creative and cultural
industries. We have continuously explored ways to strengthen the collaboration between ERRA and IFRRO

to establish a robust foundation for global reprographic rights protection.”

Ambitious goals

This conference underscores the UAE’s commitment to fostering a sustainable creative environment and
supporting global efforts to protect intellectual property rights, recognising them as vital cultural and

economic development components. With a clear set of ambitious objectives, the conference aims to raise
awareness of reprographic rights and their crucial role in the creative economy, encouraging cooperation
between collective management organisations (CMOs), publishers, and authors while facilitating the

exchange of knowledge between regional and international reprographic rights experts. The conference will
also highlight best practices in rights protection and the publishing industry’s digital transformation.

Panel discussions

The conference agenda on its first day featured panel discussions centred around the event’s key themes.
Majd Al Shehhi led a session titled ‘Unauthorised Use and Its Impact on the Income of Creative Works,’

which included contributions from His Excellency Dr Abdulrahman Al Muaini, Assistant Undersecretary for
the Intellectual Property Sector at the Ministry of Economy; Jim Alexander, International Director of the
Copyright Agency at IFRRO; Dr Sharon Wong from the Hong Kong Copyright Licensing Association; and Dr

Mohammed Al Kamali from ERRA.

In another panel moderated by Jim Alexander, Michael Healy, Executive Director of Rights Owners and
International Relations at CCC, discussed ‘Collective Management as a Solution’ with Sarah Tran from