The Role of Industrial Property Rights Laws in Encouraging Small and Medium Enterprises in the State of KuwaitA Study in Accordance with the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises Development and Welfare Law No. 98 of 2013
Dr. Jarrah Ali Al Mutairi
Faculty Member – Department of Law – College of Business Studies – PAAET – Kuwait
Abstract:
The research focuses on the laws that aim to encourage small and medium enterprises. The first step was the establishment of the Kuwaiti Company for Small Enterprise Development. This step was followed by the establishment of the Industrial Bank in 1998 with the aim of encouraging young people to engage in entrepreneurship. The bank contributed to supporting 300 youth projects. Finally, Law No. 98 of 2013 was issued in the matter of the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises Development and Welfare, which was one of the government’s tools to motivate young people to expand self-employment by investing in small and medium enterprises, leading to diversification of income sources. The fund’s capital amounts to two billion dinars, making it one of the largest funds in the world established for this purpose.
The fund has played its role in supporting all activities and projects, whether commercial, intellectual, industrial or technological, provided that they contribute to the development and diversification of income sources, meet the needs of the local and international markets, provide job opportunities for citizens and develop the value of self-employment. The support took many forms, including: loans, administrative facilities, granting industrial lands and providing them with utilities, tax and customs exemptions on all equipment, supplies, materials and intermediate goods for a suitable period, providing technical support, the state’s commitment to give priority to national products when concluding government contracts, bearing part of the cost production, protection of industrial property rights against forgery, counterfeiting and other crimes. Emphasis has been placed on small and medium enterprises of an innovative nature that are protected by industrial property rights, and their role in supporting the economy and transferring technical knowledge and foreign expertise to the national youth has been clarified.
Keywords: intellectual property, small enterprises, medium enterprises, patents, trademarks.