Great news for trademark rights holders and Industrial Property professionals interested in United Arab Emirates.
The very high costs of this jurisdiction, one of the most complex economies in the world and also one of those that offers the most opportunities for foreign investment in the Arabian Peninsula, have often proven to be an obstacle in the internationalization of brands and a determining factor in decision making in the management and maintenance of brand portfolios.
The Middle East has long been one of the regions of the world where The protection of Industrial Property has become more expensive.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council, made up of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) has worked hard to integrate, unify and homogenize fields of the economy, finance, trade and customs, the legislations of its members, among other aspects, and all this work is also having an impact in the field of brands. One of the great milestones in Industrial Property, not only in the GCC countries but in the Middle East and regional and Arab territories in the area, was the coming to light of the GCC Implementation Regulations. In this entire context of close ties that unite these countries, in recent years we have seen how tariff and bureaucratic adjustments in neighboring countries such as Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait that They have greatly facilitated and simplified the procedures for registering trademarks.
While not all trademark tariffs have been reduced in the United Arab Emirates (to cite an example, the cost of document preparation and its formalities continue to be very high), Final registration and renewal fees have been reduced which will facilitate portfolio management and decision making.
Author: Cristina Arroyo y Juan Miguel Sáinz de Marles
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