Any original ideas, designs, discoveries, inventions, and creative work created by an individual or group are considered intellectual property. The most prevalent categories of IP protection are copyright, trademark, patent, and design.
The UAE has strong intellectual property regulations and is a member country of international treaties on intellectual property rights recognition and enforcement, including the Paris Convention on patents and trademarks, the Patent Cooperation Treaty for patents, the WIPO Convention and TRIPS, and the Gulf Cooperation Council for trademarks, to name a few. The UAE’s intellectual property laws include the Patents and Industrial Design Law 44 of 1992, the Trademarks Law 37 of 1992, and the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law 40 of 1992.
In this post, we’ll go through the most common legal strategies for ensuring that your intellectual property rights are well-protected.
The first step in IP protection is to make sure that your IP is registered in the country where it will be used.
Registration of Copyright
Copyright law in the UAE protects an original creative work in the literary, artistic, or scientific fields, regardless of its description, method of expression, importance, or goal. The UAE’s ministry of economy permits copyright registration, and if accepted, the copyright is valid for the owner’s lifetime and fifty (50) years after his or her death.
Registration of a Trademark
Any distinguishing trademarks, such as names, letters, figures, logos, titles, hallmarks, images, patterns, sound marks, or words, that are used or intended to be used to differentiate goods, products, or services, are considered trademarks. The UAE’s Ministry of Economy authorizes trademark registration, and if granted, the right lasts for ten (ten) years and can be renewed for an additional period of time.
Registration of a Patent
Any new invention that is an innovative step or an improvement on an existing invention and has usability, industrial application in several domains of technology is eligible for patent protection and registration. In the UAE, patent registration is handled by the International Centre for Patent Registration (ICPR), which is part of the Ministry of Economy. A patent is valid for twenty years from the date of filing once it has been granted.
Additional safeguards for intellectual property rights
- Take proactive steps to prevent infringement: IP owners should take further steps to safeguard their products, such as pursuing enforcement proceedings through government agencies such as ports and customs. Market raids, confiscation of counterfeit commodities, destruction of confiscated counterfeit goods, and other steps may be taken.
- Protect trade secrets with strong NDA’s: Take legal advice in order to ensure that company’s trade secrets are always protected by entering into iron-clad non-disclosure agreements with anyone who had access to the said secrets by virtue of their role in the company. Ensuring that a legally enforceable NDA has been signed goes a long way in ensuring that the trade secrets remain protected.
- For better protection, improve IP knowledge inside the organization: Every entity, whether a corporation, a private enterprise, or a government agency, interacts with intellectual property in some form. IP infractions are frequently observed within organizations owing to a lack of understanding of intellectual property rules and regulations. Confidentiality protection and non-disclosure agreements are frequently negotiated on paper but seldom implemented in practice. As a result of such poor performance, remedial steps should be performed.
IP protection is required not just to protect ideas, but also to motivate the inventor or owner of the intellectual property by granting them the exclusive right to benefit from the creation. As a result, strategic and effective legal steps are essential to ensure that your intellectual property is adequately protected.
The list of UAE IP Firm can be found here.