Following the reduction of official fees in July 2019, the UAE Trade Mark Office has now announced a further fee reduction, which applies across the majority of filing, prosecution and register maintenance actions. The reduced fees also apply to the filing of oppositions, making enforcement of rights in the UAE more affordable. The reduced fees have immediate effect from 5 April 2020.
The official fees charged by the UAE Trade Mark Office have changed significantly in recent years, most notably with the publication of UAE Cabinet Decision No. 9 of 2015 (published in May 2015), which doubled the official fees across all stages of the trade mark application process.
A further change followed in July 2019 when the Trade Mark Office announced a reduction in the official registration and renewal fees by approximately 26%.
Now, seemingly driven by what is an undoubtedly difficult economic climate for brand owners, the UAE Trade Mark Office has published a new schedule of fees under Cabinet Decision No. 5 of 2020, which serves to reduce a wide range of trade mark fees by between 25-30%.
The reduced official fees have immediate effect from 5 April 2020 and are understood to be permanent. The new fees apply to new applications, as well as any currently pending applications where fees have yet to be incurred.
Brand owners will be pleased to learn that the reduced fees also apply to searching, filing, registration and renewal, as well as to recordals of assignments and changes of name and address. There are also reductions to the fees for obtaining replacement certificates or official extracts of third party marks.
For contentious matters, the reduced fees apply to the filing of oppositions as well as to hearing fees. This change will be particularly welcomed, enabling trade mark owners to enforce rights at a more manageable cost.
A table setting out the changes in official fees for some of the key trade mark services is shown below:
UAE Official fees |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activity |
AED USD |
AED USD |
||
| Search | 500 | 140 | 350 | 96 |
| Application | 1,000 | 280 | 750 | 205 |
| Publication | 1,000 | 280 | 750 | 205 |
| Registration | 6,700 | 1,825 | 5,000 | 1,362 |
| Renewal | 8,700 | 2,370 | 6,500 | 1,770 |
| Assignment | 2,700 | 735 | 2,000 | 545 |
| Change of name / address | 1,500 | 410 | 1,100 | 300 |
| Opposition | 10,000 | 2,725 | 7,500 | 2,043 |
| Hearing | 500 | 140 | 350 | 96 |
| Obtaining replacement certificate | 200 | 55 | 150 | 41 |
At this time, it is not known if any reductions will be applied for patent and design matters.
Wider Impact
The UAE Trade Mark Office is the first in the region to have significantly reduced its fees, not once, but twice in the last 12 months.
It is yet to be seen whether the other GCC countries will follow the lead of the UAE Trade Mark Office and apply similar reductions.
Whilst the fees will certainly be welcomed, brand owners should keep in mind that the UAE Trade Mark Office still requires a notarised and legalised Power of Attorney to file any applications, carry out any register maintenance or file an opposition. This requirement has not changed at the present time and was re-confirmed by the UAE Trade Mark Office ahead of the fee reduction announcement.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
