Maha Bakhiet Zaki, Director, Intellectual Property & Competitiveness Department, League of Arab States (LAS), Cairo, Egypt

Maha Bakhiet, a Sudanese citizen with a Ph.D. in IP law and a Master’s degree in copyright legislation, joined the League of Arab States (LAS) in October 2000.  She took part in establishing the Intellectual Property Unit at the LAS headquarters in Cairo, which aims to coordinate all IP issues within the Arab region with the cooperation of the 22 LAS member states.

Prior to joining LAS, Ms. Bakhiet worked as a Legal Advisor at the Ministry of Justice in Sudan, as well as the Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Literary and Artistic Works Council of Sudan.  From 1995-2000, she took an active role in working groups and committees for the reformation of the Sudanese legislation in intellectual property and in the committees for the preparation of the Sudanese accession to the WTO.  Since March 2000, she has been a member of the WIPO Academy Advisory Board.  She has participated and represented the League of Arab States in many regional and international meetings and conferences and presented numerous papers and lectures, in both Arabic and English, on various IP issues.