Syria

Putting in place powers of attorney to appoint IP agents has long been a headache for IP owners, especially when the powers need to be notarised and legalised. Changes this year to the procedures in Syria for powers of attorney appear to have added to the administrative burden and left many IP owners puzzled.

In March this year we reported that a draft patent law was before the Cabinet and had been made available to the public on the Patent Office website. Since then further work has been done on the draft and it has moved closer to a document that may meet Syria's various international obligations and agreements, both present and future.

Both Syria's repealed 1946 and current 2007 trademark law use the term "distinguishing mark" in Arabic as the term for "trademark", perhaps emphasising the importance of a mark having some degree of distinctiveness. Yet some of the marks being advertised in the official journal would suggest that distinctiveness may not always be a requirement for registration.

During June this year, a delegation from Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, VeriSign and Symantec met with the Syrian president, Bashar Al Asad, as well as several ministers and business people. They also visited local universities. The purpose of the visit, according to the Wall Street Journal, was to woo Syria away from its strategic alliance with Iran by showcasing the benefits of US technology that would be available to Syria if US sanctions against it were lifted.