Qatar has officially adopted the Gulf Cooperation Council Trademark Law which was published in the official gazette No. 09 dated 09 July 2023 and has entered into force immediately thereafter.

 

By way of background, Qatar approved the said law through the decree No. 7 of 2014 dated 8 June 2014 which was later published on 30 June 2014. Meanwhile, the GCC Trademark is a set of provisions that will be applied uniformly across all the GCC states, in regards to the prosecution and enforcement of trademark rights even if it does not offer a unitary registration system. The Trademark Offices of each GCC country will remain as the receiving office and will register trademarks on a national basis. Registering a trademark across the six GCC countries will still require filing six separate national trademark applications.

 

Key changes:

 

  • A significant increase in the official fees, which will also be applied retroactively on pending Trademark cases that are currently maturing to registration.
  • The publication period has changed from 4 Months to 60 days.
  • The publication and registration fees are to be settled within 30 days from the date of receiving the respective notification of the trademarks office.
  • multiclass trademark applications will be allowed based on the approval of the respective registry.

 

We are currently updating our schedule of charges to take into account the changes in official fees (noting that there are increase in fees for certain services and also reductions in some others); our professional fees will remain the same.

 

For any further information on the above, please contact JAH Intellectual Property to  info@jahcoip.com