This research volume is based on a successful Intellectual Property Workshop held as part of the 6th International Gulf Research Meeting, held by the Gulf Research Centre in the University of Cambridge, in August 2015.

The research volume constitutes a collection of papers presented at the Workshop, entitled “Intellectual Property in the New Era in the GCC States: Enforcement and Opportunity”, and the title of this volume, although not identical with the Workshop, closely reflects its focus and spirit. It covers a range of topics – some general and others specific – on the current status of intellectual property protection regimes in the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (otherwise generally known as the GCC) and its individual member states, namely, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Kuwait, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The volume examines the opportunities and challenges facing the GCC in becoming a real union with a common, or at least harmonized, set of IP laws and regulations, while still allowing flexibility for domestic imperatives and interests.

The research volume consists of thirteen chapters, with the individual contributions by researchers and scholars representing a broad-based and truly international interest in intellectual property in the Gulf region, with authors from Australia, Bahrain, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The chapters have been arranged into three somewhat informal groupings, largely reflecting the order of presentation during the Workshop itself,

The first grouping consists of a chapter by Workshop co-director David Price analyzing the current status of intellectual property regimes in GCC member states and Yemen on the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Organisation and the introduction of its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement). He is followed by Nadia Naim on an assessment of the extent to which GCC intellectual property regimes are currently both integrated and shariah-compliant, with recommendations for development of further integration and shariah-compliance in the future.

The second grouping examines a broad spectrum of specific intellectual property differing terms of protection for copyright areas and issues in certain individual member states and/or the GCC generally. Riyadh Al Balushi, Noora Al Lawati, and Muluk Mohsin jointly examine the differing terms of protection for economic rights under the copyright laws amongst the GCC, and the negative effects of such differences.