IP News Round Up

The Gulf Co-operation Council Patent Office ("GCCPO") which I mentioned on 20 Jan 2011 has recently launched a new website . It offers information on filing, searching, published applications and statistics. So far it is available only in Arabic but English speakers can still access the old English language site. For general background information on the Gulf Co-operation Council ("GCC") see my article "Gulf Co-operation Council Constitutional Framework" which I uploaded on 10 June 2011.

Joelle Morini published an article entitled "Where to find Patent Documents from the Patent Co-operation Council"in the Intellogist blog on 24 May 2011. It provides a useful introduction to the GCC and the GCCPO, provides examples of GCC patent specifications and lists the databases where GCC patents are to be found. Her article also refers to my post on Saudi Arabian IP law.

The International Bar Association will hold its annual conference in Dubai between 30 Oct and 4 Nov 2011. The advance programme promises interesting discussions on intellectual property, communications and technology. Particularly intriguing is "No more secrets and the right to oblivion? The consequences of ubiquitous computing" which is an all day event on the Wednesday.