The Start Of A New Era – GCC Trade Mark Law Implemented In Kuwait

After almost 30 years of waiting, the GCC Trade Mark Law has been implemented, and is now in force in one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states - Kuwait. Further news is awaited in the other GCC states of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The trigger for the implementation of the GCC Trade Mark Law in Kuwait has been the publication of Ministerial Decision No. 500 of 2015 which approved the Implementing Regulations for Law No. 13 of 2015 and which, in turn, ratified the GCC Trade Mark Law. Ministerial Decision No. 500 of 2015 was published on 27 December 2015, with the effect that the Implementing Regulations came into force in Kuwait on 28 December 2015.

The impact of the Implementing Regulations

Until now, the Implementing Regulations to the GCC Trade Mark Law have not been publically available. These Implementing Regulations will have an impact in all the GCC states including, most immediately, in Kuwait. Some of the key changes under the Implementing Regulations are as follows:

An increase in official fees Under Ministerial Decision No. 500 of 2015, the official fees for trade mark applications (from filing through to registration) in Kuwait are increased to approximately USD 1,035 from approximately USD 80 (ie to KD 310 from KD 24). This is part of an increase in official fees for a number of activities before the Kuwait Trade Mark Office, with the fees for renewals, oppositions and assignments also increasing.

A change in the supporting documents for trade mark applications The documents that are now required to support a trade mark application in Kuwait under the Implementing Regulations are:

a notarised and legalised Power of Attorney; a copy of a Certificate of Incorporation or Commercial Licence for the applicant; and a legal translation of the trade mark, if it includes any words which are not in Arabic. In relation to the first of these requirements, many brand owners will be accustomed, when filing a trade mark application in a GCC country, to submitting a Power of Attorney legalised for use in the country where the application is being filed. However, the Implementing Regulations do not specify that the Power of Attorney must be legalised for use in the specific country where the application is being filed.

This may potentially be interpreted as allowing applicants to rely on a Power of Attorney which has been legalised for use in any GCC country (rather than in the specific country where the...