The process of patent registration in the UAE is governed by Federal Law No. 31 of 2016, established under Law No. 17 of 2002 concerning the Regulation and Protection of Industrial Property, which encompasses Patents, Industrial Designs, and Drawings. According to this legislation, the UAE extends patent protection across all technological domains, requiring that innovations possess a scientific foundation and practical applicability. Additionally, inventions are expected to have industrial relevance, with potential applications in sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, handicrafts, and services.

Inventions that can obtain patent registration in UAE:

Authority for Granting Patent Registration in the UAE

The Ministry of Economy (MOE) serves as the central government authority overseeing and regulating the patent registration process in the UAE. Through patent registration, inventors and innovators can safeguard their creations from any entity attempting to misuse or exploit them. A patent, issued by the UAE Ministry of Economy, serves as a protective document for original inventors. 

Required Documents for Patent Registration in the UAE

1. Legally authenticated power of attorney

2. For corporate applicants, a legalized extract from the Commercial Register or the Memorandum of Association is necessary

3. An English specification and claims, along with their Arabic translations

4. Drawings related to the invention

5. An abstract of the invention

6. A legalized deed of assignment, signed by the inventor if the applicant is not the inventor

7. A certified copy of the application indicating the filing date, number, and country

How to Apply for a Patent?

In accordance with Article 11, the application for obtaining a patent is to be filed with the Ministry of Economy, along with relevant details of the applicant, abstract and description of the patent, elements of protection and the fees. All applications and attachments have to be filed in Arabic and English.

The application will be examined by the Ministry under Article 13. Additional documents or information may also be requested from the inventor. If the conditions for grant of patent are satisfied, the applicant will be awarded the patent certificate, as published in the IP circular, provided no objections or grievances have been filed related to this patent under Article 17.

Period of Protection 

The patent is protected for a period of 20 years from the date of filing the application (Article 18). Annual fees would have to be paid during the duration of protection.

What Rights are Granted on Award of a Patent? 

A patent holder will be granted the right to exploit the invention under Article 19 of the Patents Law.

If the patent is a product, the patent holder has the right to manufacture, use, offer for sale, sell or import the patent, including the right to prevent third parties from doing any of the above activities without his permission.

If the patent is an industrial process or a method of manufacturing, the patent holder will have the right to use the process or method as well as the rights set out above in respect of the products directly obtained from the use of such process or method.

Patent Licensing

On a mission to become a global hub for transnational commercial transactions, the United Arab Emirates has incorporated very fair and just laws to safeguard all parties involved in licensing any type of Intellectual Property.

When it comes to patent licensing and as per UAE IP Federal laws, all parties involved in the licensing process are given full disclosure to determine the terms of the respective patent licensing agreement. These terms include the extent of exclusivity, geographical territory for use, and the overall scope of the licensing agreement.

As lenient as this may seem, reasonable guidelines have been set in place to safeguard both licensor and licensee:

“An unused or uncommercialised granted patent could result in being legally licensed to a worthier owner.”

An important point that we feel compelled to touch upon is the concept of ‘Commercial exploitation’.

This is a mandatory regulation under Article 24 of the Legislation, which stipulates that if a patentee ceases or discontinues commercial use of the granted patent, or fails to delegate the patent to an eligible assignee to carry out patent commodification, the patent in dispute will be legally liable to be arbitrarily assigned and granted to a party deemed to be suitable. This is referred to as ‘Compulsory Licensing.’

Conclusion 

The UAE’s patent laws provide comprehensive protection and licensing mechanisms to promote innovation and safeguard intellectual property rights.

Al Safar and Partners Advocates and Legal Consultants offer expert opinions and assistance in navigating these regulations and understanding their impact on business operations.

Connect with us at +97144221944 . Reach out via email reception@alsafarpartners.com to discover how our services can elevate your understanding. Visit www.alsafarpartners.com to position yourself at the forefront of legal opportunities in the corporate landscape of the UAE.

Written By: Dr. Samina Aquil – Case Manager at Al Safar and Partners Law Firm.

تعد دبي مركزًا للعلامات التجارية للأزياء والرفاهية ونمط الحياة ، مع سوق نابض بالحياة ومتنامي لمنتجات الأزياء. بالنسبة لماركات الأزياء التي تتطلع إلى توسيع أعمالها في الشرق الأوسط ، فلا يخفى على احد ان دبي وجهة جذابة لهذه الأعمال .
توفر اتفاقيات الامتياز الطريقة الأمثل لدخول العلامات التجارية للأزياء السوق دون حساب ومخاطر فتح متاجرها الخاصة.

فالامتياز هو نموذج عمل يسمح لشركة (مانح الامتياز) بالتوسع عن طريق ترخيص علامتها التجارية ونظام الأعمال الخاص بها إلى شركة أخرى (صاحب الامتياز) ويمنحها امتياز يتجسد بحقها في استعمال العلامة التجارية الرائدة للشركة مانحة الامتياز . في مقابل رسوم يتم الاتفاق عليها ، كما ان مانح الامتياز عادةً يوفر لمتلقي الامتياز التدريب والدعم والمساعدة المستمرة لتمكين الحاصل على الامتياز من إدارة و تشغيل العمل بنجاح لضمان شهرة وريادة علامته .

في دبي ، يجب أن تمتثل العلامات التجارية للأزياء التي تتطلع إلى دخول السوق من خلال اتفاقيات الامتياز للقوانين واللوائح المعمول بها في الدولة. فقد حرصت وزارة الاقتصاد باعتبارها الهيئة المباشرة على تنظيم الأنشطة الاقتصادية بما فيها هذه الأعمال بتقديم افضل الخدمات وإصدار لوائح ترعى وتنظم اتفاقيات الامتياز المحلية والعالمية.
أحد المتطلبات الرئيسية لماركات الأزياء الأجنبية التي تتطلع إلى دخول السوق من خلال اتفاقيات الامتياز هو أنه يجب أن تكون علامتها التجارية موضوع اتفاقية الامتياز مسجلة في دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة ولا يوجد ضرورة لوجود شريك محلي .

لمزيد من المساعدة ، يرجى الاتصال بـ Al Safar & Partners على +97144221944 – البريد الإلكتروني Reception@alsafarpartners.com – www.alsafarpartners.com

Written By:

Mr. Anas Al Khamis – Case Manager at Al Safar and Partners Law Firm

Securing a registered trademark protects your brand and provides you with the tools to prevent someone from using similar signs and riding off the back of your business. If you do not protect your trademark by registering it, then you may find you are legally prevented from expanding your business. Thus, in this article, we will highlight the process and fees to register your trademark in UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

UAE

Required documents

Fees:

Registration fees are equal to 5,000 AED.

Application fees are equal to 750 AED.

Publishing fees are equal to 750 AED.

Qatar

In order to register your trademark in Qatar you should abide by the following steps:

  1. Fill out the trademark registration application and submit it to the Registration and Commercial Licenses Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry through an Intellectual Property agent.
  2. The Trademark shall be printed out on the form using a compact and clear color, in addition to the first and last name of the applicant, his profession, nationality, and address.
  3. Identifying the goods and products that the trademark covers, as well as their category/categories.
  4. 4. Identifying the entity that will use the trademark.
  5. Identifying the address in Qatar for correspondence and signing the application.
  6. Paying QAR 1000 in fees.
  7. A priority application submitted in another state within 6 months from the date of submitting the prior application may be admitted, and you shall submit a copy authenticated by the competent authority of that state.
  8. The application will be examined. If it is accepted, the trademark will be published.
  9. If the application is rejected, or if you have been requested to introduce amendments within one month from the date of submitting the application, the response shall be submitted within 6 months. Otherwise, the application shall be deemed null and void.
  10. The applicant may file a complaint after his application is rejected within two months from the date of this decision before the committee. In addition, an appeal may be filed concerning the decision of the committee within two months before the competent civil court.
  11. When the trademark is accepted, or a decision by the committee or an enforceable judgment is issued in favor of the applicant, the office shall publish the trademark in the Industrial Property Gazette which is issued regularly.
  12. Any concerned person may submit an opposition to the office within four months from the publication date to reject the registration of the trademark.
  13. The office shall notify the owner of the trademark of the submission of an opposition within two months. If the owner of the trademark fails to reply within two months, he is considered to have waived his right.
  14. The office may hear both parties or their attorney or one of them before making decisions.
  15. Any concerned person may appeal the decision of the office by submitting an opposition to the competent civil court within 60 days from its notification of the decision.
  16. All correspondences shall be registered.
  17. If no opposition is submitted, or if one is submitted and rejected, or a final judgment of acceptance was issued; the office shall register the trademark with effect from the date of submitting the application and publish the registration in the Gazette.
  18. The owner of the trademark may, after registration, submit an application to amend it, but no key amendments shall be introduced. If these amendments are accepted after examination, the publication procedures shall be taken while the applicant will have the opportunity to file a complaint and opposition if the amendments are rejected.
  19. The term of protection is 10 years starting from the date of registration. This term may be renewed for other similar terms if renewal is requested during the last year of the protection term, and fees shall be paid for every new application.
  20. No amendment may be introduced to the trademark after its renewal.
  21. After the expiry of the protection term, within 6 months, an application for renewal may be submitted after payment of the prescribed fee and additional fees.
  22. Third parties may register the same trademark for the same goods if the trademark was not renewed three years after its expiry.

KSA

What are the necessary documents?

– Attach the translation of the trademark with a statement of how to pronounce foreign terms from a certified translator’s office

– Attach the meaning of the Arabic word if the word is not understood by the public

– Attach a certificate of conformity of the domain owner (.com) in the case of the photo containing a domain name.

– Attach authentic documents for the validity of the said date if the trademark contains a calendar or Hijri date.

– If the sign is submitted in advance within six months in another country, attach a certificate of deposit indicating the date of deposit issued by the depositary with a copy of the previous application and a translation into Arabic within six months from the date of submission of the registration application

– Attach proof of entitlement to the degree referred to in the form of the trademark to be registered.

– The consent of the owner of the name/photo/title/apparent in the form of the trademark to be registered.

– Attachment of identity papers in case of family name (Commercial Registry – National Identity)

– Attach the certificate of registration of the trademark in case the trademark is finished, the renewal period exceeds, and the owner wishes to register it on a different or modified commercial record.

What are the steps:

1. Accessing the Authority’s website, selecting services, and pressing the trademark service.

2. Access to the trademark portal.

3- Moving to the service platform through the unified national access/e-mail.

Request the registration of a new mark (as an owner as a stakeholder or as an owner of the enterprise or as a company).

5. Filling the required Data.

6. An invoice shall be issued to study the trademark and, if paid, the application shall be received and examined.

After consideration, one of the following decisions is taken:

– Acceptance is subject to an amendment (90-day time limit), and if the applicant fails to make the required amendment within 90 days, the application shall be transferred to a waiver.

– refusal with the possibility of modification (10 days time limit for amendment).

– Final refusal in either case:

• If the adjustment is not made within the specified time limit (10 days).

• If the amendment is made by the customer and does not meet the required statutory requirements.

8. If the trademark is accepted, the publication invoice shall be issued and then moved to the publishing stage after payment of the outstanding fees by the applicant.

9- Publishing (publishing duration 60 days).

After the end of the deployment phase without any objection submitted, the client must pay the final invoice within 30 days of its issuance, and then print the certificate through the system.

Fees:

Consideration fees1,000 SAR
Publication fees500 SAR
Trademark registration and certificate issuance fees5,000 SAR

For further assistance please contact Al Safar & Partners on +97144221944 – email reception@alsafarpartners.com – www.alsafarpartners.com http://dubailawyers.ae

Written By: 

Ms. Luminita Rizescu – Partner & Specialized in Retail Law, Commercial and Rental Disputes, Will drafting.

Copyright is the exclusive right that is granted to authors or artists for the literary or artistic works they create to publish, broadcast, assign or sell their work for a fixed period of time. Copyright protection is granted for the expression of ideas and not for the ideas themselves. A person having an idea regarding a flying horse communicates the idea to another who creates a sketch of the same. Here the copyright protection is given to the second person who expressed the idea of a flying horse through a sketch and not to the first person even though the original idea regarding the flying horse had emerged out of him. Also every different form of expression is granted a separate protection.

In the above mentioned example, if a third person looks at the sketch of the flying horse and writes a poem describing the same then again this third person is granted a separate copyright protection for his work. Here it is noticed that the idea of the flying horse is one but the manner and form of expressing it varies from person to person. Two people may get inspired by the same idea and express it in their own original ways. It is essential that the expression should be original.

In the above mentioned example, a fourth person getting inspired by the painting also composes a poem describing the flying horse, he is also granted copyright protection. The mode of expression of the third and the fourth person is the same and they both got inspiration for the poem from the sketch of the flying horse but their expression is original and emerges out of their own mind. Had it been that the fourth person copied the poem of the third person then it would amount to infringement and he would not be granted any copyright protection. The reason for granting protection only to expressions of ideas and not ideas themselves is that if a person is granted monopoly in ideas then it would greatly hinder the various creative expressions. Also, there is no way to record and evidence the emergence of an idea in a person and hence it would create confusion and would result in more infringements.

According to the Berne Convention all “literary and artistic works” are given copyright protection. The expression “literary and artistic works” according to article 2 of the Berne Convention includes every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as books, pamphlets and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of the same nature; dramatic or dramatic-musical works; choreographic works and entertainments in silent show; musical compositions with or without words; cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography; works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving and lithography; photographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography; works of applied art; illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science.

The Berne Convention also further provides that it is the matter of the country’s legislations to decide the exact scope and extension of the copyright protection it shall grant. The present article discusses the scope of copyright protection granted by UAE through its federal law no. 7 of 2002 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the law’).

Article 2 of the law provides for a list of works created by authors that shall enjoy copyright protection. This protection is enjoyed by authors, the assignees and licensees as the case may be. The list provided by the law goes as follows:

Article 3 further defines the scope of copyright protection by specifying the works that are excluded from the protection. It provides that the protection is not granted to ideas, procedures, work methods, mathematical concepts, abstract principles and facts themselves. The copyright protection is however granted to the innovative expression of the same.

There are certain works that are meant for the use of the public and therefore allowing any monopoly rights to anyone over such works would prove to be prejudicial to the public at large. Such works are enlisted by the law as under:

The information or content in such work cannot be granted copyright protection but the creative expression of the same maybe granted protection. Creative expressions may be in the form of compilation, arrangement or any such innovative method.

The copyright protection is granted from the date of the first publication of the work. There is no necessity for the work to be registered with the Ministry of economy for receiving protection. But the registration of the work has better evidentiary value and therefore recommended.

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For legal advice regarding the subject, please call +971 4 4221944, or call 800-LAWYER (529937).

The term ‘Fair Use’ in the context of copyright law refers to the use of material subject to copyright protection without permission or authorization from the copyright owner, in a way that would not infringe the copyright of the owner. The rationale behind the provision of the ‘Fair Use’ concept is to allow the general public to reap the benefits of the literary or artistic work in a way that would not be prejudicial to the moral and financial rights of the author. It allows the public to analyze, comment and criticize the works and helps in creating and sustaining a healthy environment for the growth of art and literature in the society.

The Berne Convention through its Article 10 permits the making of quotations from a work with appropriate details as to the source from where the quotation is taken and the author of the said quotation provided that the following conditions are met:

The UAE provides for ‘Fair Use’ through its articles 22, 23 and 24 of the Federal law no. 7 of 2002 regarding Copyrights and Related Rights (herein after referred to as ‘the law’).

Article 22 of the law provides for the use of the copyrighted work in the following ways and circumstances provided that two conditions namely 1) the moral rights of the author are not being prejudiced and 2) the work has been lawfully published, must be satisfied:

Further, article 23 of the law brings under the scope of ‘Fair Use’ the reproduction of the work in such a way and limit that it justifies the objective behind the reproduction which is done through newspapers, periodicals or broadcasting organizations. This provision of the law applies to the following works:

This also provides that ‘Fair Use’ is allowed while using works that are protected under the title of ‘related rights’ of copyright. Thus even the owners of such related rights cannot complain of infringement if the use of the work falls within the scope of ‘Fair Use’ as provided for by the law.

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For legal advice regarding the subject, please call +971 4 4221944, or call 800-LAWYER (529937).

Copyright being the exclusive right of the owner to exploit the work through publication, broadcasting, printing, making copies etc., any such act done by a person who is not the owner of the copyright and has not been assigned the copyright in a given work by the owner of the rights or without the written authorization from the copyright owner amount to copyright infringement and shall be liable to the owner of the copyright to provide for damages that owner suffers due to the said infringement of his copyright.

The UAE law regarding copyright and its related rights (federal law no. 7 of 2002) (hereinafter referred to as ‘the law’) deals with the various ways in which copyright infringement may take place and has provided for penalties for them. A list of the infringements and the penalties provided for them is as under:

Apart from the above mentioned penalties the court may also order the following:

Apart from the penalties for the offences, the law also provides for some intermediate measures for immediate relief to the claimant. The claimant i.e. the author or his successor may request to the President of the Court of First Instance to make any of the following orders along with an injunction order:

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For legal advice regarding the subject, please call +971 4 4221944, or call 800-LAWYER (529937).