According to the minister, if you walk into a hotel and smell a perfume, the chain can register that smell for its brand.
According to a senior official on Wednesday, businesses and people in the United Arab Emirates are able to register their trademark in a variety of formats, such as sounds, fragrances, geographical indicator marks, and holograms.
Speaking on Wednesday at the new intellectual property (IP) system's introduction in Dubai, Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri stated that the ministry is now working to expand the reach of trademark registration by adding additional classes of non-traditional trademarks.
According to Abdulla Al Saleh, undersecretary of commerce and industry at the Ministry of Economy, the United Arab Emirates updated its outdated intellectual property rules in 2021 with a brand-new framework.
“When we talk about protecting hologram, sound and smell IPR, these practices were not mentioned in the older version of the law. The new version of the law covers all of these practices. We created a registration system for this purpose. For example, if you enter a hotel and smell a perfume, the hotel chain can register that smell for its brand. Hence, no other brand can use it. Similarly, a music tone that we hear at the start of a video or movie in cinemas can also be registered as its intellectual property,”
he said.
There was a notable increase in the quantity of trademark registration applications in 2023—a 9.6% increase over the previous year. Additionally, there was a 29.5% rise in the registration of intellectual works and a 2.9% increase in the number of registered marks.
In 2023, 3,415 patent applications were received by the ministry, an increase of 19.5% over the previous year. In 2023, there were 5,108 registered patents overall, an increase of 13.7% over 2022.
11 new initiatives
Eleven integrated efforts in diverse disciplines and applications of intellectual property are covered by the new system for intellectual property:
- The Innovation Hub provides UAE inventors with an online incubation platform. It offers technical advice and support for the process of registering patents.
- The objective of the Patent Hive program is to augment the quantity of patents awarded. By 2026, 6,000 additional patent registrations are expected to have been made in the nation.
- To improve the abilities and competitiveness of Emirati talent in the field of intellectual property is the goal of the "Fahes" (examiner) project.
- The goal of InnovLAB is to support and enhance the capabilities of innovation incubators.
- InstaBlock responds to concerns about copyright violations in livestreaming.
- IP Sport raises the quantity of trademarks in the UAE's sports industry that are registered.
- One Day TM speeds up the process by allowing a trademark registration certificate to be issued in only one working day.
- To connect and combine data from several government departments in charge of enforcing intellectual property rights, the IP Platform project will be developed.
- "Hayyakom" is introduced in conjunction with the INTA Meeting, which the UAE is hosting.
- The World Intellectual Property Organization will support the IP School initiative, which will provide an extensive portfolio of intellectual property training courses.
- To educate people about intellectual property rights, interact with the public, and respond to their questions, the virtual character "Aisha" is introduced. Social media channels or event participation will be used to accomplish this.
Protecting intellectual property rights, minimizing infringements and resolving related conflicts, fostering the expansion of R&D-based projects, improving the services provided by the ministry for patents based on AI technology, and utilizing the outcomes of intellectual property protection both domestically and internationally are the four main pillars of the new system.
The minister went on to say that this program is a component of the UAE's goal to establish itself as the world's most successful society and a center for the new economy by 2031.
News Source: Khaleej Times
