Overview
Egypt is a Contracting Party to several treaties on intellectual property including: the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.Copyright Office
• The Permanent Office for the Protection of Copyright (Ministry of Culture) is the office responsible for copyright and related rights in Egypt.
• The Ministry’s website (http://www.ecm.gov.eg/) is in Arabic and it utilises social media such as: facebook and twitter to reach its audience.
• At present, visitors in search of legal materials (on copyright and/or allied matters) may not find the website particularly useful.Industrial Property Offices
Trade Mark Office
• The Commercial Registry (Ministry of Trade and Industry) is the competent office responsible for the administration of intellectual property rights (in particular trade marks and designs) in Egypt.
• The Ministry’s website (http://www.mfti.gov.eg) is in Arabic (with English option), but unlike the copyright office, it doesn’t employ the use of social media.
• At present, this website does not appear particularly useful for visitors in search of intellectual property materials – although there is an intellectual property unit section on the website.Patent Office
• Egyptian Patent Office (Ministry of Scientific Research) is the competent office responsible for the administration of patent rights in Egypt.
• The office website (http://www.egypo.gov.eg) is a very good resource tool for IP practitioners – in particular, its patents database.
• The website is in Arabic, but it also has an English language option.Kingsley tweets as @IPinAfrica
