UAE To Cut Patent Approval Time For Green Initiatives From 2 Years To 3 Months

“So we came up with an accelerator programme in supporting any applicant who has a patent for green energy or sustainability. It will take 3 months – or a maximum of 6 months – to approve the application, instead of 1 or 2 years,” said Al Muaini.

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“For the accelerator programme, there is a committee which can look into the applicant's request to waive the fee also,” he said.

Initiatives in the field of water, solar, wind and ocean energy and any other sustainability field will be supported under the“Green Intellectual Property” initiative, Marwa Al Harmoodi, chief innovation manager and IP expert at the Ministry of Economy, said. She elaborated that this is open to all UAE residents and educational and research institutes.

The ministry said that the three-month roadmap will strengthen the competitiveness of the UAE's IP landscape and contribute to its progress and prosperity, supporting the country's directives to transition to a circular economy.

Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Chairman of the UAE Circular Economy Council, said they will collaborate with local environmental stakeholders in the country and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to implement all the objectives of this roadmap, providing more enablers and opportunities to motivate inventors and creators to develop sustainable innovations and projects in critical economic areas and sectors.

Abdulla Ahmed Al Saleh, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy, said the aim is to raise the percentage of patent registrations for sustainable and environmental innovations to eight per cent of the total number of patent registrations in the country.

He invited innovators, creators, entrepreneurs, institutions, and universities to leverage the advantages offered by the new roadmap for Green IP, highlighting the competitive environment that the UAE offers in terms of IP and related activities.

Abdulla Ahmed Al Saleh

The undersecretary added that the new roadmap for Green IP aims to promote the adoption of leading digital solutions and advanced technology by individuals, organizations, and companies to produce sustainable products and services that contribute to environmental conservation.

“Following this roadmap, we are keen to forge new partnerships with the academia and research centres to integrate IP into sustainable innovations and protect the rights of eco-friendly projects and innovations.”

He added that this new roadmap aims to offer the utmost legal protection for innovations, while also meeting the growing demand for eco-friendly innovations locally and globally.