The Ministry of Supply & Trade in Yemen has during the last 6 months been actively working on drafting three laws:
1- Trademark Law
2- Patent Law
3- Industrial Design Law
These draft laws have been sent to the Ministry of Legal Affairs for approval. Once approved the laws will be submitted to the Council of Ministers and then forwarded to the Parliament for discussion.
When issued, these laws will substitute the present unified Intellectual Property Law No. (19) of 1994. The new draft laws will meet the requirements of the WTO and TRIPs agreements. The main items to be changed in the proposed Trademark Law are:
1- Reduce the opposition period from 6 months to 90 days.
2- Increase the grace period for renewal of trademarks from three months to six months.
At present, the Ministry of Culture is also drafting a copyright law to substitute the section on copyright that currently exists in the Unified IP law No. 19 of 1994, but has not been fully implemented. The efforts of the Yemeni government can be felt with the progress of these laws. The AGIP Bulletin will continue to monitor these laws and provide updates.