The above came into force as of 15 June 2021, and will expedite the trademark registration process.

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

The Directorate issued the above decision as a result of the delays caused by covid-19 epidemic, and to compensate for the lack of responsiveness by other entities and companies due to the lockdown.

Said trademarks were re-published on 17 November 2020 and subject for the 60-day opposition period, making the due date for opposition 16 January 2021.

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

The total number of published applications is 224 and the TMO is expected to issue more gazettes during 2020 to overcome the backlog. The last issued gazette by the Libyan TMO was on 4 June 2015.

You can download a copy of the gazette here.

Our firm will be soon sending notices of publication to our clients.

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

The decree was made known to IP agents on 1 October 2017, and will become effective on 15 October 2017 affecting applications pending publication, as follows:

 
It is worth mentioning that renewals with respect to trademarks filed or renewed before April 2007 will be published twice, the first time after acceptance and the second time after issuing the registration or renewal certificate. While renewals with respect to trademarks filed or renewed after April 2007, there will be only one publication after acceptance.

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

Increase in the Official Fees
Pursuant to Ministerial Decree no. 65 of 2016 approving the Implementing Regulations of the GCC Trademark Law, the official fees for trademark related matters have increased effective 29 May 2016.

The new official fees for filing one trademark in one class through issuance of the final registration certificate have increased from USD320 to USD1723.

The increase affected all services provided by the BTMO retroactively, meaning that it will be applied on all pending files as well as new matters.

In this regard, publication fees should be paid within 30 days from the date of issuance of the acceptance notification, otherwise the application will deemed as abandoned.

Our new schedule of fees will reflect the increase to the official fees only.

Online Publication of Accepted Trademark Applications
The BTMO has introduced new publication procedures according to Article 11 of Executive Regulations of GCC Trademark Law issued with the decision No. 65/2016, having the accepted trademark applications published every Thursday on the official website of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (www.moic.gov.bh) and will stop issuing hardcopies in the Official Gazette which belongs to the Ministry of Information Affairs.

Such publications will contain the details of each accepted trademark application, transfers of ownership, recordals of name changes, recordals of address changes, changes of representative agent, and approved recordal of mergers.

The first online publication was issued on 2 June 2016. The opposition period is now 60 days from the date of publication with the payment of the prescribed fees.

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

The old fees of said publication of assignments were SAR500 and for renewals SAR300; the new fees will become SAR3000 for both.

We recommend applying for any renewals and assignments as soon as possible to avoid the new increased fees.

If you have any questions, please contact us at saudi-arabia@qumsieh.com.

You may contact us at libya@qumsieh.com for further clarification about the Libyan Patent and Trademark Office.

The effective date of said Decree is 7 August 2014.

It is required that any accepted applications are published twice, the first time after acceptance and subject to the opposition period of 90 days, and the second publication comes after payment of the registration fees. The increase of fees covers both advertisements.

The new charges are reflected on all new applications including filings, renewals, recordals, and amendments, as well as the registration of patents and designs.

In light of the above, it is worth mentioning that all applications filed before the effective date will not incur the increased charge.

The Decree provides an allowance period of 3 months fo all IP departments to complete pending files. Any remaining incomplete applications after this time period will be subject to the new fee.

For our updated schedule of charges please contact us at yemen@qumsieh.com.

This new regulation replaces the previous practice, which did not have a time limit to pay the advertisement fees.

As for old pending applications, the advertisement fees must be paid before the end of February 2014, otherwise they will be considered lapsed.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at saudi-arabia@qumsieh.com.

Accordingly, the publication fees are now SAR3000 instead of SAR1000. The new schedule will apply to applications filed after the date of the effective date.

The advertisement fees for recordal changes and renewals, however, remain unchanged.

For more information, please contact us at saudi-arabia@qumsieh.com.