World Intellectual Property - IP Laws - UAE
IP - Legal Developments:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is characterized by exceptional growth across all sectors, but the media and entertainment industries surely represent one of the most exciting areas of development at this time. Perhaps less to do with legal developments as such, the growth within the region is now having a considerable impact on the commercial approach being adopted in pulling deals and market strategies together in these sectors in order to help investors and international companies.
Trade marks and branding:
This is an area that continues to grow and develop as the Trade Marks Registry continues its efforts towards implementing practical measures to ensure the smooth and speedy examination and processing of applications. An interesting development is an increased level of assistance from the Economic Department and/or the municipalities that regulate the grant of trade licences and approval of trade names in the different Emirates. As a general rule, there is no synchronization between these government authorities and the Trade Mark Registry in terms of clearing the trade names prior to granting approvals. As a result trade marks often compete with company names as identifiers of the origin of goods and services. A common belief is that these signs confirm similar rights to the holder or registrant. This misconception and the different legal or administrative regimes under which the different types of registration operate have created confusion as who owns the actual right to use the name.
Rights enforcement:
On the enforcement front, the Dubai Customs Authority is planning to set up a dedicated Intellectual Property Unit (IPU), the first unit of this kind, to help curb the import, export and transshipment of counterfeit goods and products through all ports. This establishment of such a unit will promise a bright future for international brand owners, since Dubai is a major hub for both import and export as well as for the transshipment of goods to different destinations. This has facilitated the traffic of counterfeit goods, which often entered the country as separate components and were then assembled or packaged locally for re-export. The new IPU provides a fresh and welcome solution to this problem. Dubai Customs will work with rights owners in variuous industries to create anti-counterfeiting task forces that can carry out inspections and enforcement work against shipments of counterfeits. On other practical levels, the UAE government is still committed to stopping counterfeiting activities in terms of protecting software copyrights, with the lowest piracy rate in the Arab world. This is an area where the UAE government's commitments has shown clear positive results.
Patents:
Exciting developments have been made in the field of free technology transfer with more and more overseas technologies being brought into the country and developing R&D base with locally developed technolo9gy being offered for transfer outside of the country. This is a considerable development and the country is being approached for providing advice on patenting in a whole range of fields, including construction, chemicals and raw material transofrmation. Development also continues in the medical and pharmaceutical fields as well, since Dubai hosted Arab Health conference which had the biggest attendance rate.
Another development that brings promise to brand owners and investors is the Free Trade Agreement (FAT) the UAE signed with USA this year to bring more investment to the country and guranteeing the countries high standard IP rights if they bring their products and services into the UAE. These will benefit from high standards of protection and enforcement.
Copyright and music:
Copyright seems to be the buzzword as companies and individuals alike started understanding the importance of both protecting and claiming ownership of their creativity. The UAE government has stepped up in this direction by issuing warnings to publishers that it will punish newspapers which carry advertisements for fake goods as it considers these to be in violation of copyright. On the music front, under the UAE Copyright law, the penalty for each infringing song would amount to a fine of not less than dh 10,000 ($12,000), with imprisonment for the infringer of not less than two months or both. For repeated offences, the minimum fine goes up to Dh50,000 and imprisonment will be for a period of not less than six months. One of the most notable things that have developed are the arrival of so many new publications viz. daily newspapers and magazine and the developments relating to regulatory aspects in terms of licensing and content control. On the licensing front, to publish an English language daily requires a licence granted by the government body which in the past was through an unofficial moratorium. This has now been removed and licensing activity has started. With regard to censorship of the publications, UAE government is reviewing the country's media laws taking into account the developments in information technology and changes in the speed and ease of the flow of information.
Movies, TV and Radio:
One of the key differentiating factors about the UAE is the government's high support to the media and broadcasting industries. Since its creation, Dubai Media City has firmly established itself as the media hub of the region and cater to media companies including TV channels, studios for audiovisual productions, animation and computer graphics houses and freelance professionals and offer 50 years tax-free and a one-stop shop for all requirements such as visa, etc. Dubai is also taking initiative to set up Dollywood on line with Hollywood and Bollywood in order to create world-class films, studios for television serials. In order to promote these projects, the government will provide support in terms of procuring sponsorship and broadcast partners for the project. The TV and radio broadcast industries within the UAE are highly fluid. Over the past few months many new operators have launched channels and there is a very large number of new music channels, particularly entering the market.
Sports:
Dubai government is making a clear policy of support for the sports industry and a project, Dubai Sports City is being created which is considered to be a large property development inspired by the power of sport and intended to be a unique combination of sports, lifestyle, leisure, entertainment, commerce and enterprise creating a new environment.
The charm of the place seems to be that people enjoy coming to this part of the Middle East to work, and enjoy living there.
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