PoAs and other required documents no longer need to be legalised by the Consulate of the UAE, i.e., notarization of the same will suffice.

A stamp of a UAE public entity (e.g. government organisations, national universities) is now regarded as equivalent to notarization.

In addition, if the inventor is an employee of a UAE company, it is possible to submit a certificate of employment or a copy of the employment contract instead of the deed of assignment.

For more information, please contact uae@qumsieh.com.

Applicants or their agents can file new patent and industrial design applications and annuity recordals through the new portal.

The new portal will publish accepted applications and include details on granted applications as well.

For more information, please contact kuwait@qumsieh.com.

The session was opened by the Director of the Department of Industrial Property in Dubai, Mr. Khalfan Ahmad Alsweedi. The online system is still on trial for improvements and the Ministry is open to receive any comments made by users.

The online system was first launched on 23 June 2016, and the Ministry is planning to expand said system to allow payments of annuity fees for both patents and designs at the beginning of next year.

The main points of the new system are:

• The application effective date will be the date official fees are paid; the application will be canceled if the official fees are not paid within 30 days from the date of submission;
• It is possible to make amendments to the application before the payment of the official fees, after payment no changes are possible;
• All files can be submitted online, further submitting of any documents after submission of the application online have to be done physically;
• Filing numbers of new patent applications must conform to the following sequence P6000001/2016 and for industrial designs D6000001/2016;

If you have any questions, please contact uae@qumsieh.com.

1. Payment of the publication fees of AED400 if the applicant is natural persons within 60 days from the date of the circular letter otherwise, the application will be deemed abandoned;
2. Payment of the publication fees of AED800 if the applicant is legal entity within 60 days from the date of the circular letter otherwise, the application will be deemed abandoned, and
3. Three hardcopies of the description, drawings, and images of the accepted design in English and Arabic languages as well as 1 softcopy on CD-ROM within 60 days from the date of the circular letter; otherwise, the application will be deemed abandoned.

Superiority in publication will be given to applications claiming priority rights.

Should you need more clarification, please contact uae@qumsieh.com.