Dubai Customs in partnership with OSN; the direct broadcast satellite provider in the Middle East and North Africa have launched the first intellectual property educational electronic game.

The new game uses virtual reality to raise awareness amongst the youth and kids around the importance of combating illegal counterfeit and pirated products.

Ahmed Mahboub Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs and Martin Stewart, CEO of OSN launched the new game "Copycat Combat" at KidZania, Dubai Mall in the presence of Abdullah Mohammed Al Khaja, Executive Director of Clients Management Division at Dubai Customs.

The new game will help kids learn about the importance of protecting intellectual property and the perils of counterfeit and copied products.

Musabih commented, "Protection of intellectual property early is a very important issue because if you don’t protect it early and proactively you might have to protect it defensively later. This initiative uses virtual reality and is based on the latest advanced applications in the field. The result is what we see today: The "Copycat Combat" which will not only raise awareness about the importance of Intellectual Property but will also help kids innovate and develop their skills. The initiative is one of many steps that we’ve taken following the vision and directives of our wise leadership. We are happy to have partnered with OSN to come up with this innovative product".

He added: "Raising awareness amongst children around the protection of intellectual property is a priority to us. For this we keep developing and innovating to spread the knowledge and share the experience to protect our society from the hazards of these illegal counterfeit products".

On his part, Yousef Ozair Mubarak, Director of IPR Department said, "We target school and colleges and organise annual competitions to make students active advocates, and not only passive learners. Around 166,000 students from 172 schools and 30 universities benefited from these awareness campaigns up to the end of September 2017. Dubai Customs also sponsors Children’s Annual Film Festival in an annual basis and awards winners in films on IPR".

There will be a stationary platform at KidZania for the game and another mobile platform to be used by the IPR Department as part of its awareness activity that targets schools and colleges.