WIPO signs MoU with the Egyptian Trademarks and Industrial Designs Office

WIPO will assist Egypt’s Trademark and Industrial Designs Office to create an online platform for the electronic administration of trademarks and designs documents. The platform will use WIPO’s new and enhanced IT systems and services including the Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS), WIPOScan, the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) in addition to the tools and components for IP data exchange. This platform will assist the office in improving process efficiency, enhancing the quality of services, and facilitating office communication and integration within the global IP networks and databases.

A memorandum of understanding was signed on September 21, 2011 by Ambassador Hisham Badr, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations office in Geneva and WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

Under the agreement, WIPO and the Egyptian office will prepare a detailed project plan to be implemented over the next two years for the deployment of the IT systems and services.

The Egyptian Trademark and Industrial Designs Office is the largest trademarks office in the Arab region, with a total volume of close to 300,000 trademark files.

The MoU follows a similar cooperation agreement with the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology signed earlier this year for the technical modernization of Egypt’s Patent Office aimed at improving the quality of patent application examination and processing and enhancing the IT platform and systems to support the Office’s role as an international search authority.