Saudi Arabia to host Design Law Treaty Diplomatic Conference

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Jane Lambert

A diplomatic conference will take place in Riyadh between 11 and 22 Nov 2024 to conclude and adopt a design law treaty.   Although art 5quinquies of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property requires industrial designs to be protected by all countries of the Paris Union how they are protected varies greatly from country to country.  Countries like the UK and EU member states provide a system of design registration.  Other countries like the USA grant design patents.  The purpose of the proposed treaty is to harmonize and facilitate the registration procedure.

A draft treaty and implementing regulations have already been proposed.  The proposed treaty consists of 32 articles covering abbreviations, general principles, filing, grace periods, publication, terms of protection, renewal, regulations and governance.  An agenda, timetable and social programme have also been published.  The proposed treaty will not affect contracting parties' obligations under the Hague Agreement or Section 4  of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPs").

Further information on the conference can be contained from the World Intellectual Property Office and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property websites.  Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during UK office hours or send me a message through my contact page,

IP Law in Palestine

 

Jane Lambert

Gaza and the West Bank of the River Jordan may not be in the Gulf but they are part of the Middle East North Africa region and those districts have plenty of links with the Gulf Cooperation Council states. Right now intellectual property is probably the last thing on the minds of the inhabitants of those areas but it is to be hoped that a time will come when the guns fall silent and their shattered economies can be reconstructed. Such reconstruction will require massive investment much of which could come from the GCC countries.  However, such investors will wish to see that their investments in branding, design, technology and creativity are protected adequately.

Finding information about the legal protection that is available in those territories is not easy because they are among the few parts of the world that are not yet party to the WIPO Convention.  That does not, however, mean that they have no interest in intellectual property.  When I visited the WIPO between 2 and 4 Sept 2019 to address the Advisory Committee on Enforcement I had the honour of sharing a table with the Palestinian observer to the proceedings (see Another Side of the WIPO 5 Sept 2019 NIPC News).  While chatting in the intermissions I learned that he was legally qualified and that he had actually been instructed in IP cases before entering public service.

As he did not seem to know any of the delegates whom I had been addressing I offered to introduce him.  We started with the British delegation which was staffed by Elizabeth Jones of the Intellectual Property Office and District Judge Hart of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court small claims track and had just moved on to the American delegation when the chairperson called the meeting to order and we had to return to our seats.

The only information that I have been able to find out about Palestinian IP law from the WIPO Lex web page is that it is party to 29 treaties none of which seems to relate to IP and that the link to its national intellectual property office leads to An-Najah National University.  Another page on the WIPO website states:

"The term patent protection is four years as from the filing date, renewable for additional three periods of four years each. Palestine is not part of the TRIPS Agreement; therefore it is not obliged to have a minimum 20 year protection term."

I have, however, found a thesis by Ihab G. Samaan entitled A Historical View of Intellectual Property Rights in the Palestinian Territories which states on page 63 that:

"there are a number of laws protecting intellectual property rights. These are inherited from the British Mandate and the period of Jordanian rule in the West Bank. The Patents and Designs Ordinance No. 33 of 1924 and the Trademarks Ordinance No. 35 of 1938 are in force in the Gaza Strip, while the Patents for Inventions and Industrial Designs Law No. 22 of 1953 and the Trademarks Law No. 33 of 1953 are in force in the West Bank. The Copyright Act of 1911, as incorporated in Palestine and amended by the Copyright Ordinance No. 16 of 1924, is in force in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

This seems to be consistent with information published by law firms with offices in the area.  The reason for the differences between the laws in Gaza and those in the West Bank appears to be that Gaza was administered by Egypt between 1948 and 1967 and the West Bank by Jordan during those years.

If and when I find out more about the laws of those territories I shall publish them here.   In the meantime, anybody who wants to discuss the topic can call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during UK business hours or send me a message through my contact page,  

WIPO Design Law Treaty Diplomatic Conference to Take Place in Saudi Arabia

 

Author Emmanuel Berrod Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed Source Wikimedia Commons

Jane Lambert

A diplomatic conference is a meeting of representatives of governments that are negotiating the terms of an international agreement. On 21 July 2022, the WIPO General Assembly voted to convene a diplomatic conference to conclude and adopt a Design Law Treaty before the end of 2024.  On 9 Oct 2023, the Preparatory Committee of the Diplomatic Conference to Conclude and Adopt a Design Law Treaty agreed to hold the conference in Riyadh between 11 and 22 Nov 2023 (see Saudi Arabia Set to Host 2024 Diplomatic Conference to Conclude Design Law Treaty PR/2023/909 9 Oct 2023).

Although countries that belong to the World Trade Organization are bound by arts 25 and 26 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") to protect new or original industrial designs for at least 10 years and the Hague Agreement facilitates international design registration, the requirements for registration vary considerably from country to country.   The Design Law Treaty is intended to iron out those differences.   A draft of the proposed Treaty and its Regulations have been circulating for some time.  According to the WIPO press release,, the Treaty should make it significantly easier for designers and small and medium-sized enterprises to register their designs.

The new Treaty coincides with the Commission's proposals for a new Designs Directive to replace Directive 98/71/EC and amendments to the Community Design Regulation which I shall discuss in detail in NIPC News and IP after Brexit.,

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during UK office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

Qatar at the WIPO

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Jane Lambert

Yesterday, I attended the WIPO Conference "As the UDRP turns 20: looking back, looking ahead" on domain name disputes at the Organization's head office in Geneva. Next to our meeting, there was an exhibition about Qatar and some kind of reception.  As I have written quite a lot about Qatar and the Qatar Financial Centre with its own legal system based on English law, in particular, I toured the stands.

Qatar has been in the news a lot lately for good things such as the recent IAAF World Athletics Championships last month and the 2022 FIFA World Cup as well as more troubling things like the ongoing dispute with its neighbours which I mentioned briefly in How will the Blockade of Qatar affect IP Law in the GCC Countries? on 7 June 2017.  An official on one of the stands agreed that the breakdown of regional cooperation was a concern but he points out that it had not stopped Qatar from investing heavily in upgrading its already impressive infrastructure.

I asked specifically about patents and whether Gulf Cooperation Council patents still had force in Qatar and whether the inventions of Qatari inventors were protected in other GCC states.  The official could not answer my question beyond saying that Qatar does not apply for a large number of patents.  The table of European patent applications by country between 2009 and 2018 on the European Patent Office's website suggests that he may well be right. However, he pointed out that his country has robust copyright laws and he handed me a short leaflet entitled "We Protect Your Right" published by the Ministry for Industry and Commerce with some basic information on copyright registration.  I was also handed a copy of a gallery guide to the National Museum of Dohar 

That leaflet on copyright registration appeared to be the only literature in English on intellectual property at the exhibition but there is a statistical country profile on Qatar on the WIPO website.  It would appear from WIPO's country profile that Qatar is party to the Paris, Berne and other international agreements and has comprehensive intellectual property laws.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or Qatari IP law generally should contact me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during British office hours or message me through my contact page,

World Intellectual Property Day in the Gulf

On 26 April 1970 the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization came into force. The anniversary of that event is celebrated throughout the world as World Intellectual Property Day. A different theme is selected for the event each year. This year it is "The Movies - A Global Passion."

The WIPO enters details of the celebrations on a special Facebook page. So far the WIPO appears to be aware of three events in the GCC region:

• The Third Saudi Forum for Intellectual Property at King Abulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia which will address issues of existing Saudi laws and enforcement;
• Also in Saudi Arabia, a series of lectures on IP by Dr. Mohamed Gasim Ibrahim and Dr. Fawaz Ahmed Saad of Umm Al-Qura University; and
• In DubaI a course on patent valuation offered by The Licensing Executives Society – Arab Countries in cooperation with Business Development Academy.

Should any other events in the region to mark World Intellectual Property Day appear on the WIPO Facebook page between now and Saturday I shall mention them here.

None of those events relates to film which may be explained by the fact that film making and distribution in the GCC countries is quite small. According to Wikepedia there are no cinemas at all in Saudi Arabia though films are seen in that country on television, over the internet and on DVD and at least one Saudi film has been made though it was shot abroad and the lead female actor was Jordanian (see Cinema of Saudi Arabia). Kuwait seems to be the only state in the region with a highly developed film industry and local cinemas (see cinema of Kuwait) and the industry is growing in the United Arab Emirates (see Cinema of the UAE). Initiatives like the incentives offered by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission upon which I reported in 

Abu Dhabi: An Offer to Film Makers that will be hard to refuse 31 May 2012 should certainly help.

World Intellectual Property Day falls on a Saturday this year so it is difficult to mark the day. Over the next few weeks or so I shall be writing about copyright and rights in performances, the intellectual property rights that protect film makers, distributors and actors, as my contribution to the day. In the meantime, as the greeting "Happy World Intellectual Property Day" is something of a mouthful I wish all my readers around the world a good weekend (whether they celebrate it on Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday). I hope they take in some of their local events to mark World IP day and that at the very least that they get to see a good movie or some other show.

Cybersquatting Emirates Style: the UAE Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy

In "Domain Names: New Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for ".ae" and "امارات." Top Level Domains" 22 Jan 2011, I outlined the domain name registration system for the United Arab Emirates  country code top level domain name space (".ae" and "امارات.") and its domain name dispute resolution policy (the UAE Dispute Resolution Policy ("UAE DRP"))..

As I explained in that article, the UAE DRP is modelled on ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Policy ("UDRP") and managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") and cases come before the same panellists who decide cases under the UDRP.  WIPO currently has one Emirates resident on its list, namely  Ms. Hoda Barakat of Dubai, but WIPO's policy is to appoint a panellist from a third country where the parties are from different countries.   Only when the parties are from the same country will WIPO appoint a panellist from that country.

The cases that have been resolved in accordance with the UAE DRP since 2006 are listed on the WIPO UDRP Domain Name Decisions (ccTLD) page of the WIPO website.   As of today there have been 16 decisions and all but 2 have resulted in an order for the transfer of the disputed domain name to the complainant.  The two that have been determined differently - DAE2006-0001 (<morganstanley.ae>) and DAE2008-0002 (<loreal.ae>) - have been "terminated."  Most of those cases have been decided by single panellists but a few have been decided by 3 member panels.

An index of the decisions appears below:

• <bayer.ae>: Bayer AG v Lin Shen 21 June 2012;
• <rbs.ae>: Royal Bans of Scotland Plc v Pavel Kornilov 21 June 2012;
• <flickr.ae>: Yahoo Inc. v Lin Shen 1 June 2012;
• <me-enterprise.ae>: Enterprise Holdings Inc. v Enterprise ME Car Rental LLC 18 April 2012;
• <youtube.ae>: Google Inc. v Mobitronix LLC 29 March 2012;
• <skype.ae>: Skype Ltd. v Mobitronix LLC 23 Jan 2012;
• <gulftalent.ae>: Gulf Talent FZ-LLC v. F. A. (RWG000000000B0D5)  Feb 2011;
• <ferrariworld.ae>: Ferrari S.p.A. v. ST Network International Limited 25 Nov 2009;
• <hardees.ae>: Hardees Food Systems Inc. v. Ali Abdelwahed (AEORG-MAHMEDO) 30 Sept 2009;
• <dunkin-donuts.ae> and <dunkindonuts.ae>: DD IP HOLDER LLC v. Ali Abdelwahed (AEORG-MAHMEDO) 28 Sept 2009;
• <baskin-robbins.ae> and <baskinrobbins.ae>: BR IP Holder LLC v. Ali Abdelwahed (AEORG-MAHMEDO) 25 Sept 2009;
• <yahoo.ae>: Yahoo Inc. v Fady Alassahd a/k/a Fady Al Assaad  2 April 2008;
• <ebay.ae>: eBay Inc. v. Akram Mehmood  16 June 2007; and
• <sonyericsson.ae>:  Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications International AB and Others v Mohamed Ali Aal Ali  23 Oct 2006.

One of the areas of law in which these chambers specialize is domain name dispute resolution (see the NIPC Domains website). Should you or your client require advice or representation in a domain name dispute in the ".ae" top level domain or elsewhere we shall be glad to help.  You can call us on +44 161 850 0080 or  send a message through my contact page.  You can also follow me on Facebook, Linkedin, Xing or twitter.

Domain Names: New Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for ".ae" and "امارات." Top Level Domains

The .ae Domain Administration (".aeDA") is the domain name authority for the ".ae" and "امارات." top level domains. It is a department of the United Arab Emirates Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. On 29 Sept 2010 the .aeDA adopted a new Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy known as the "UAE DRP" for those domains.

The UAE DRP is based substantially on ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for generic top level domain names. The UAE DRP is incorporated by reference into all agreements for the registration of all ".ae" and "امارات." ccTLDs. As in the UDRP the key provision is the warranty and representation that appears at s.4 of the UAE DRP:

"By applying to Register a Domain Name, or by asking a Registrar to maintain or renew a Domain Name Registration, you hereby represent and warrant to us and the relevant Registrar that:

a) the statements that you made in your Registrant Agreement are complete and accurate;

b) to your knowledge, the Registration or the use, direct or indirect, of the Domain Name by you does not and will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the legal rights of any third party;

c) you are not Registering or will not, directly or indirectly, use the Domain Name for an unlawful purpose; and

d) to the best of your information, knowledge and belief, you are not Registering or will not, directly or indirectly, use the Domain Name in violation of any applicable laws or regulations.

It is your responsibility to determine whether your Registration or use of the Domain Name Registration infringes or violates someone else's rights,"

Each applicant agrees to refer to a panellist appointed by the WIPO any dispute where a third party asserts that:

(i) the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trade mark or service mark in which he or she has rights; and

ii) the domain name proprietor has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and

iii) the domain name has been registered or is being used in bad faith.

As In the UDRP, the complainant must prove that each of those three elements is present.

The .aeDA has accredited a number of registrars to issue ".ae" and "امارات." domain names. Decisions in respect of the UAE DRP can be viewed on the the WIPO website.

If you need advice or would like one of us to represent you in an ".ae" domain name dispute or would simply like to discuss this post. please contact us through this form.