Morocco and WIPO seek protection of Morocco's cultural heritage
Morocco is seeking to protect a legacy with a "long history", as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has pointed out. The organisation has highlighted the efforts Rabat has been making to protect its heritage because, they say, it is not only a fundamental question of its roots, but also a pillar for future initiatives.
An "incredible" heritage
WIPO Director General Daren Tang was keen to highlight what he described as the "incredible heritage" of the Alawite kingdom. He believes that, with the creation of the new Morocco Seal, WIPO can "support it with our experience in supporting the heritage and legacy of countries, and combine it with branding and marketing". A trend that the Morocco-WIPO partnership has started with projects such as the one focused on the city of Eassouira, which is already underway.
The idea of this initiative is to showcase as many traditional Moroccan products as possible to the world. This is linked to one of the most important issues to which WIPO devotes much of its efforts, namely copyright. This is not only an element related to industry and economics, as it is often understood, but is also deeply linked to "a heritage aspect", according to Daren Tag himself.
New legislation to protect copyright
Tag met with Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, Morocco's Minister of Youth, Culture and Organisation. One of the main topics of the meeting was the drafting of new copyright legislation. After the conversation between the two, the director of WIPO said that they had also discussed the field of Artificial Intelligence, one of the sectors that is currently booming and which presents a wide range of opportunities, as well as a threat due to the lack of knowledge of its limits.
But both WIPO and Morocco want to take advantage of the moment that all AI-related technology is going through. WIPO sees AI as a potential "catalyst to support Moroccan industry and start-ups, as well as to ensure that intellectual property is a means to create jobs for young Moroccans and support national businesses". This is also relevant to Morocco's ongoing efforts with regard to its intangible heritage.
Protecting intangible heritage
This is one of the main concerns of Moroccans in terms of their roots. Morocco wants to "protect its age-old know-how in order to ensure its continuity". All of this has repercussions for the country's economy, which is currently experiencing a period of growth that is attracting new partners who, in view of the great future prospects that Rabat is predicting, want to benefit from the regional leader.
In fact, this is one of the points that Daren Tang also wanted to refer to, who assured that "the commercialisation of this know-how through the work carried out by various ministerial departments is of interest to several countries". In this way, he showed that, in addition to the possibility of great economic benefits for the country, one should not forget "the greedy appropriation of Moroccan heritage by several companies, or even by certain states".
