The GCC Trade Mark Law
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Trade Mark Law is a unified law dealing with the protection, enforcement and commercialisation of trade marks across each of the GCC member states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE). It is not a unitary GCC registration system and brand owners seeking protection of their trade marks still have to file separate trade mark applications with the Trade Mark Offices of each GCC country and pay separate official fees.
On 31 July 2017, Oman became the fourth member to adopt the GCC Trade Mark Law. This follows Kuwait which was the first state to adopt the GCC Trade Mark Law in December 2015, followed by Bahrain in May 2016 and then Saudi Arabia in September 2016. In Qatar, Law Number 7 of 2014 states that the GCC Trade Mark Law will automatically become effective six months after the publication of Implementing Regulations but to date this has not been published. There is no news as yet on when the UAE will implement the new law.
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