Dubai Customs has invited trademark owners in the UAE to register their trademarks to guarantee their rights and protect them from forgery and counterfeit.

This move by the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) department of Dubai Customs will also help in recording all infringement techniques in order to protect the consumers from the resulting dangers, safeguard the national economy and encourage the investment movement in Dubai.

“The Department is keen on detecting and controlling all kinds of commercial fraud including counterfeited trademarks since this is the core business of its specialty being the first entry of all goods heading to Dubai,” said Yosif Ozair Mubarak, senior manager of IPR department at Dubai Customs.

“Registering trademarks entails filing and archiving all trademark-related data, documents and information in the trademark register system and facilitates the Department’s tasks and ensures full legal protection of the trademark.”

“The trademark register system is linked to all customs centers so that Customs Inspection Section can identify the owner of the trademark directly eliminating the need to refer to him; thus, accelerating the decision-making process with regards to seizing goods suspected to be infringed,” he added.

“From this springboard, we invite all trademark owners to register their trademarks at Dubai Customs following the simple procedures and with nominal fees,” Mubarak concluded.

Registering trademarks requires enclosing a copy of the valid trademark registration certificates, a copy of the power of attorney which is authenticated, translated and documented as per the law and administrative fees of Dh200 ($54.45) along with Dh10 fees as Dirham Knowledge.

A total of 926 trademarks were registered at Dubai Customs by their owners or the authorized legal representative.

American trademarks top the registered trademarks list by 28 per cent followed by the French trademarks by 12 per cent, then Swiss trademarks by 11 per cent whereas Emirati trademarks do not exceed 3 per cent of the total registered trademarks at Dubai Customs.

Trademarks shall be registered by its owner or the authorized legal representative in the UAE after being registered at the Ministry of Economy. – TradeArabia News Service