Now that you have decided to start a
business in Dubai you need to familiarize yourself with trademark registration
laws in the UAE. If you don’t register your trademark, any third party vendor
or service provider can misuse your company logo to gain credit without hard
work. So if you don’t want someone else to infringe your brand name you need to
follow these eight simple steps to register a trademark in Dubai.
Step 1: Understand your Business
Before you register your brand name
you need to know what is intellectual property. Intellectual property is
nothing but an asset which is a result of the human mind’s creativity. It can
be an idea, design, trade secret, invention, process, patient etc, it forms an
integral part of business formation. When you plan to start a business you will
begin to notice other organizations that own similar products and services. So
in order to distinguish yourself from your competitors you need a logo or mark
which gives you a unique identification. Registering your trademark gives you
sole ownership of the company and entities you global ownership rights.
Step 2: Create a Unique Brand Name
You need to create a unique brand
name which could be a logo, motif, word mark, pattern of colors, a sound track.
This brand name must be pertinent to your business and must abide by the rules
put by the trademark committee ministry of UAE which is founded by the gulf
corporation council.
Step 3: Search for Duplicate Trademarks
No matter how well you design your
trademark it will be denied registration if it happens to remotely resemble
another brand. So avoid this situation you need to make sure that your mark
doesn’t resemble another brands by conducting an online search by visiting
trademark electronic search system database. This database contains the
trademarks of all registered companies all over the word. All you do is key in
your trademark and check if any other organization has a trademark that
resembles yours and make changes accordingly.
Step 4: Get help from Professionals
It is better if you get help from a
leading international corporate law partner to assist you in the trademark
registration process. Some companies provide trademark registration serviceswhich are highly beneficial to company owners. They appoint attorneys who
assist you with every aspect of trademark registration right from designing a
trademark up to registering it. If you are planning to do it yourself it will
be a tedious process which could take months.
Step 5: Fill in the Trademark Registration Application
If you are looking forward to set up
a company in Dubai or any free zone areas in UAE you need to submit an
application to the ministry of economy and commerce. You might need the help of
a translator to guide you through the process as the application form must be
filled in Arabic. You need to place fourteen specimen drawings of your
trademark in the form. You can get help from any locally licensed law firm in
UAE to assist you in the application process.
Step 6: Track the Status of the Application
After you submit the registration
application the ministry takes care of the other processes. If the ministry
detects inappropriate or incomplete information the application will be
rejected. You can also track the status of your application online or through
an attorney. If the committee’s report does not favor your requirement you can
choose to file an appeal in civil court.
Step 7: Publish your Trademark
The trademark application will be
published in the UAE official gazette, this will be done by the ministry
itself. You will be requested to publish your trademark in the nations two
leading newspapers. If you get any opposition from the public regarding your
trademark you will be given a time of thirty days to address the objection. You
need to file a written notice to the ministry to defend the objection.
Step 8: Wait for Approval From the Ministry
If there are no objections from the
public then the ministry will decide whether to approve or reject your
trademark. If they object it you can make an appeal to
the trademarks committee of the ministry. If the ministry approves the
trademark you need to send a notification to the chambers of commerce and
industry for final approval. Once it is approved you are the owner of your
trademark and no one can infringe your mark. However you need to renew your
trademark every 10 years by paying a small amount to the ministry.
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