Dr. Mohamed Hegazy

Dr. Mohamed Hegazy

Director of ITIDA, established the Intellectual Property Rights Office (IPR) in Egypt

Short Bio

A senior consultant with +20 years of experience in public policy, legislative, and regulatory affairs. His specializations include communications and information technology (ICT), cybercrime, intellectual property rights, commercial law, data protection, licensing & compliance management, consumer protection, business operations, and corporate governance. Dr. Hegazy’s extensive knowledge and expertise of the local and international legislative atmosphere can be leveraged into various services such as regulatory and public policy consultation, governmental advocacy and lobbying, providing consultation and strategic communication with governmental and private sector entities, as well as capacity-building services. Dr. Hegazy is also a seasoned lobbyist, with vast experience in tackling governmental and relevant stakeholder regulatory concerns. He is an expert in finding out-of-the-box solutions to complex problems. During his tenure as director of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), he was successful in forming and establishing the Intellectual Property Rights Office (IPR) in Egypt. He oversaw cooperation with startups and entrepreneurs from a variety of industries to build innovative digital activities based on IP assets. And developed collaborative partnerships with various major institutions in the field of innovation support. Hundreds of legal capacity-building programs for judges, prosecutors, police officers, lawyers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and government officials were delivered in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Morocco, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. As head of the Intellectual Property Rights Office for over ten years, he advocates for effective intellectual property rights "IPR" protection and enforcement and works closely with enforcement officials to ensure that rights holders’ interests are protected, as well as to emphasize the critical role that IPR protection plays in supporting innovation and economic growth. In addition to that, he restructured and developed the patent and trademark office in Kuwait, and the trademark and industrial design department in Egypt through an EU-funded project. As part of his position as head of the Legislative & Laws Committee at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, he drafted the cybercrime law and the data protection law. He also contributed to the drafting of the technology chapter in the Central Bank law, road transport using ICT, SMEs Law, and the financial regulatory authority law, among others. He encouraged multi-stakeholder collaboration in the areas of data privacy, online child safety, cybersecurity, intellectual property, cybercrimes, digital payment, SMEs, digital transformation, and e-commerce laws and regulations. Moreover, he drafted the Prime Minister's decision to establish the Supreme Council of Artificial Intelligence