As a member of the Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial Property, and according to the provisions of its Trademarks Law, the Abu-Dhabi Federal Court granted protection to trademark "LANZOR", even though the trademark was not registered in the UAE.
The case was brought before the Abu-Dhabi court, when a local party registered and used the trademark "LANSO" on its pharmaceutical products, in a way very similar to trademark "LANZOR" owned and used by a French pharmaceutical company.
The plaintiffs, therefore, filed action against both the local party and UAE's federal Ministry and supported the case by presenting previous worldwide registrations of the trademark "LANZOR", including more than 40 Arab and foreign countries. In addition, they also presented their trademark application to register trademark "LANZOR" deposited at the Federal Ministry in the UAE, prior to the local party's application.
The local party alleged that their trademark was duly registered in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations and the provisions of the current Trademarks Law, and that no opposition action was filed against it within the prescribed period. They also argued that the plaintiffs' application should not be considered on the ground that it is only an application, which has not yet matured into full registration.
The Abu-Dhabi Federal court issued its decision in favor of the French party, confirming the French party's ownership of its " LANZOR " trademark. Accordingly, the Federal Ministry was requested to remove the registration of trademark "LANSO" from the Register, and register the French trademark " LANZOR" instead. In addition, the local party was ordered to cease using the trademark " LANSO", to publish the judgment in the Official Gazette at its own expense, and to pay all the expenses and fees incurred as a result of the subject case. It is also worth mentioning that all packages that were used by the local party, bearing trademark "LANSO", were also destroyed by order of the court.