The numerous infringements concerning intellectual property and the growing number of counterfeit goods in the United Arab Emirates have led the legislators to regulate the protection of intellectual property in the Gulf countries.
As provided by the Trademarks Law currently in force in the UAE, anyone who registers a trademark will be considered the exclusive owner of its rights of use.
The above-mentioned law and its Implementary Regulations, which entered into force on 15 January 1993 and 2 February 1993 respectively, were created by standardizing the existing laws and trying, at the same time, to avoid any regulatory gaps. Upon entry into force, the law decreed that all applications for registration of Trademarks in use in the UAE, or previously registered, should be officially submitted by 15 January 1994 to the Ministry of Economy. In case of omission, the right was considered as extinguished. Currently, the period of validity of the registration of a trademark is ten years from the date of submission of the application, renewable for a further period of ten years. If the party who has registered the trademark uses it for an uninterrupted five year period, without receiving any objections on the right to use it, any dispute concerning the ownership of the trademark will be legally inhibited to third parties and the trademark will be indisputable. Finally, let us recall that the Islamic Sharia has set the principles for the recognition and the protection of intellectual property rights, favouring the compliance to it also thanks to the importance given to it by the Hadith, which has remained one of the main sources of law within the Islamic civilization. Therefore, anyone who violates the rights deriving from a registered trademark, will be held responsible in both civil and criminal matters before the DED (Department of Economic Development) which is the UAE Department of Economic Development.
(Bologna Office – Linda Tontodonati – 0039 (0)51 2750020).
