World class infrastructure and business environment internationally attracts entrepreneurs into the UAE. This attraction of talent into the region, invites competition with it, which requires for companies to protect their personal brand from being replicated and potentially negatively impacting on their business. This is where the need for a trademark arises – registering your trademark identifies the rightful brand ownership and can protect and secure a company brand against copyright infringements.
Sovereign PPG can assist with UAE trademark registration, enabling companies to legally register their trademarks.
A brand can trademark its name or logo, which could be used to identify their product or service. A trademark can be registered in the UAE on design elements of a companies products or services, attributing ownership of things such as a name, image, slogan, symbol, figure, and more.
Brand registration in the UAE is officially governed by the Ministry of Economy (MoE), who authorise the registration, renewals and cancellation of trademarks in the UAE.
The documents required for the application include:
To register a trademark in the UAE companies need to follow a series of steps and processes.
1) Ensure the trademark is available
2) Application form with the MoE
3) Pay the fees for trademark registration
4) Application review from the MoE
5) Publish announcement in official bulletin journal and 2 local Arabic-language papers
- Al Bayan
- Al Fajr
- Al Ittihad
- Al Khaleej
- Al Wahda
- Al Watan
6) Receive the trademark registration certificate.
A trademark in the UAE, once registered, is valid for 10 years. This trademark protects and safeguards the company’s trademarked product or service within the UAE, but not internationally.
Once expired, the trademark will need to be renewed.
The costs associated with registering a trademark in the UAE are:
There may be additional fees faced, in the form of fines, should payments be delayed:
When registering a trademark in the UAE, there are certain limitations and restrictions that companies should be aware of, in terms of things that are prohibited from being associated with trademark. Some of these limitations as outlined by the MoE for UAE trademark may not contain:
Once a trademark’s registration has expired, there is a 3-month period where it may be renewed. For every month that renewal is delayed, there is a AED1,000 fine.
The process for renewing a trademark is similar to the registration process:
The previous registration certificate will also need to be submitted when renewing trademark registration.
Once the renewal fee has been paid, the trademark registration renewal will be successful within 30 days.
The cost for renewing a trademark registration is AED6,700.
A trademarks registration in the UAE, can be cancelled via the MoE website:
When cancelling the registration of a trademark, the latest trademark registration certificate will need to be supplied.
There is a cancellation fee of AED1,500 and once cancellation is approved an announcement of cancellation in 2 local Arabic newspapers will need to be published.
Sovereign PPG has experience with registering trademarks in the UAE with the Ministry of Economy and the requirements for fully registering a trademark in the region.
If you need assistance with trademark registration or any other related onshore or offshore company setup, restructuring, local partner or PRO support matter in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, the wider UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, then please do get in touch with us on +971 (0)4 456 1761 for Dubai or +971 (0)2 448 5120 for Abu Dhabi, email us at SovPPG@SovereignGroup.com or complete the contact form below and we will be delighted to assist you.
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