By : Nahla Makled
The Intellectual Property Office (IPRO), of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), has conducted a specialized training session on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), digital signature and cybercrime, held for Public Prosecutors.
The session is organized and attended by Counsel Essam Elmenshawy, Chairman of the Administrative Prosecution Authority (APA), Engineer Amr Mahfouz, ITIDA’s CEO, Counsel Mohammed Rami and Counsel Ayman Nabil, vice chairmen of the Administrative Prosecution Authority, Mr. Ahmed Abdul Ghani, Acting Manager of the IPR Office and a number of executive managers in ITIDA.
The training session aims to develop technical skills of related stakeholders, through ITIDA’s role to build capacities of local judges, prosecutors, criminal investigators, and Police officers on IPR-related topics.
The training course, held over two days at the headquarters of the Judicial training center, in the APA, aims to raise awareness and build capacities in the fields of Intellectual Property and digital signature. The training also aims to transfer the technical expertise of ITIDA, as a technical expert in intellectual property issues, as well as executing its role to spread and activate the digital signature system in various state sectors.
ITIDA’s CEO Amr Mahfouz said that the Egyptian government is exerting huge efforts in reforming the legislative framework to improve the ICT sector business environment, through regulating e-commerce activities, issuing a law on combating cybercrime and approving the data protection Law, that’s embracing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The training program included a series of technical lectures on how to extract digital forensics in intellectual property lawsuits; copyrights and related issues; piracy of encrypted digital content; trademarks, industry models, and technical standards for a standing legal title of a digital signature.
It's worth noting that a 2018 study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) revealed that the rate of software piracy in Egypt has dropped by two percent, recording 59%. The study also showed significant decline in the use of unlicensed software to hit USD 64 billion in 2017, compared to USD 157 million in 2015.
Results showed that Egypt (59 percent) had surpassed countries such as Morocco (64 percent), the Philippines (64 percent), Vietnam (74 percent), and Sri Lanka (77 percent) in achieving lower piracy rates. Those results reflect the great progress made by Egypt in combating the illegal use of software.
