<p>The speaker programme included experts from the Ministry of Economy, Starwood  Hotels and Resorts, Pepsi-Cola International, Twofour54 and Nestle among  others.<br /><br />Omar Obeidat, Partner and Head of Intellectual Property was  invited to speak on IP due diligence issues in the Middle East.&nbsp; This session  focussed on understanding the business, analyzing gaps, verifying and validating  protections under licensing, recommendations for current and future growth and  global rights holder vs. local.<br /><br />Shernaz deSa, Trademarks Manager, spoke  on Administration of IP rights and challenges in the prosecution process.&nbsp;  Topics included registering trademarks in the UAE, overall view of filings in  other GCC countries and the problems associated with the filing process in the  UAE and other GCC countries.</p>