GCC - The GCC Trademark Law has been approved by the Supreme Council for the GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) during the meeting No. (33) of 2012. The law has been published in the official Gazettes of the GCC states and became effective accordingly.
The Regulations have been approved by the Commercial Cooperation Committee (comprising the Trade Ministers of each GCC member state), and will be effective on December 2015.
The GCC Trademark Law is a unifying, not a unitary law which sets out a single set of provisions that will apply uniformly across all the GCC states with respect to the registrability, registration and enforcement of trademark rights. It does not, however, provide for a single (unitary) registration or enforcement system. The Trademark Office of each GCC state will continue to receive applications and register trademarks on a national basis. Registering a trademark in all six GCC states will still require filing six separate national trademark applications.
The GCC Trademark Law includes a number of provisions which amend the current position in some or all of the GCC states, and which promise to improve the region’s trademark registration and protection system. Some of the key provisions include: definition of a mark, examination and opposition, well-known marks, exclusivity, parallel imports and infringements.
The approved regulations included amended official fees which will be adopted by all the GCC countries; however, it will be possible for each country to amend its official fees based on its own provisions.