Abu Dhabi creates new body to handle IP disputes

The Judicial Council at Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) has approved in its recent meeting the creation of new departments specialised in the settlement of intellectual property disputes.

The move has come on time in accordance with the implementation schedule of the ADJD's 2008-2013 Strategy.

Recognised as an important tool to develop performance level and quality at ADJD, the Strategy has put the provision of specialised judicial services high among its priorities.

Counsellor Sultan Saeed Al Badi, the Undersecretary of ADJD, said "intellectual property is an important issue worldwide since it warrants the rights of innovators and intellectuals. The knowledge economy has enormously grown globally and transformed creativity into economic wealth. This makes it imperative for us to protect intellectual property rights from any abuse." Al Badi highlighted the support extended by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of ADJD, for more specialisation in the functions at ADJD. The Department has been working to achieve its objective of specialised judicial services to meet the ever growing development levels and new investments in the human capital in the Emirate, he said.

"The Judicial Council has now a wide reaching plan to have specialized judicial departments that will start working early in the next judicial year starting on September 2010. Intellectual property departments are among them. They will be new additions to those specialized departments that have been established in the past judicial year 2009 covering contracting, construction, industry, insurance, and medical liability disputes," he added.

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