Intellectual Property System and its Benefits: 
Intellectual property is a comprehensive term that encompasses the innovations of the mind and commercial reputation, as granted in the field of business, which can be protected by law. Focusing on intellectual property benefits individuals, society, and the local economy by contributing to encouraging investment and achieving profits and revenues for its owners.

Intellectual Property is designed to protect the intellectual achievements created by humans, including inventions, symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce, not only at the national level but also beyond borders. Without the intellectual property system, human innovations may be imitated and counterfeited without accountability, causing serious harm to rights holders. To address the issue of protecting intellectual property rights at the international level, countries enter into international treaties on intellectual property to align and coordinate their intellectual property systems as much as possible. As a general rule, to protect a company's patents and trademarks in a certain country, it must apply to get that protection in that country.

Intellectual property is protected for a limited period (20 years for patents), and once this protection expires, it falls into the public domain. Any person can use intellectual property rights without any restrictions from the rights holder once the protection period has ended. Palestine relies on the following laws and regulations for intellectual property protection. You can find more information on the most important international agreements and treaties on this link. One of the most important is the Paris Convention, which provides for national treatment and a full-year right of priority.

Intellectual property consists of different categories, including:

• Industrial property which covers trademarks, patents, industrial designs, geographical indications, integrated circuit designs, plant varieties, and trade names.
• Trademarks, which cover logos and names. The value of a trademark depends on the reputation it holds rather than just the innovation behind the brand itself. For example, the trademark "Coca-Cola" is worth billions of dollars, but its value primarily stems from the reputation the company has built over its long-term business operations, not just from the design of the brand itself.
• Industrial Designs: Industrial designs are divided into two categories: drawings and models. Models protect the aesthetic appearance of a product; in other words, they protect its form rather than its function, which is protected by a patent or utility model. An industrial design may consist of the shape and/or pattern and/or color of the product; it may contain one of these elements or a combination of two or three elements.
• Patent: A patent is a document granted by the responsible authority as a result of inventing something, which can be a product or a method.
• Copyright and Related Rights: These rights include literary and artistic works such as novels, poems, plays, and musical works.

 Responsible Authority: 

• General Administration of Intellectual Property Rights
• Ministry of National Economy

Notes:

• Gaza: Inventors can submit applications to the ministry in the West Bank and communicate through phone and email with the General Administration, then send the required documents through Aramex.
• The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) governs the international patent system, through which protection for an invention can be requested simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single "international" patent application instead of multiple separate national or regional patent applications. The granting of patents remains under the control of national or regional patent offices in what is known as the "national phase." For more information about the treaty, click here.
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