Dubai Customs launches IP Award for the current school year

Dubai Customs kicked off the new edition of the annual IP Award for public and private schools, universities and colleges countrywide for the school year 2013-2014, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education and Knowledge & Human Development Authority in Dubai.

Participation in the award is open to students from all schools in the country, starting from grade six to grade twelve, and to undergraduates of all levels. A selected team in every school will prepare, organise and execute a project in the IP field. Through this award, Dubai Customs aims at boosting national loyalty and responsibility, promote volunteerism among students of public and private schools, enhance national identity, give guidance in IPR and innovation areas and protect the society against commercial and industrial counterfeit and theft of creative ideas. The competition is part of DC’s efforts to spread awareness about IPR in the society at large.   

Mr Yousuf Al Hashemi, Director of the IPR Department at Dubai Customs, said :”Dubai Customs’ IP Award, open to students from all schools and universities, is aimed at spurring competitiveness between award applicants in making the community better aware of IP, in an effort to disseminate the culture of IPR protection among the generations to come and involve as many members of the community as possible in the fight against piracy, counterfeiting and commercial fraud. For the past years, we were committed to follow up on all submitted projects for the award and encourage applicants to provide ample information on the nature of IP infringements through the seminars they held at schools and universities, as part of their projects to compete for the award.”

Ms Mahbooba Baqer, Manager of Awareness Section at the IPR Department in Dubai Customs, said ” Dubai Customs’ IP Award has had growing popularity throughout the years. Schools and universities are now very keen to apply for the award and form work teams that take on the development of IPR awareness projects and warn against the risks of piracy and counterfeiting to producers and consumers as well as to the public’s general health “.

“At Dubai Customs, we thoroughly examine every project submitted to the award to see the effort exerted in its preparation and how well applicants can deliver the IPR-related information to school and university students, hoping to see young generations fight the consumption of counterfeit products and inform the authorities of their presence in the market in order to confiscate them,” she added.