Trademark Registration In UAE – How Does It Differ From Copyright Registration?

So you have decided to have a brand of your own! Now you also have to register yourself in the eyes of the law so that you hold a valid ownership of your company. You can either opt for copyright or trademarkregistration in UAE. However, there is a difference between the two and you ought to know that in order to be able to decide the next best course of action.

It is a very well known fact that you can either get a copyright or trademark registration in UAE but the point here is to choose the one which is the best from a strategic point of view and is able to serve your business purposes. However, here are the few differences.

Trademark registration in UAE takes close to a year’s time and need to be done from the Ministry of Economy as compared to a copyright that takes about 6 months   from the US Office and 10days from the UK office.

Trademark is valid for a period of 10 years as opposed to 50 years after the death of the author in the case of copyright registration. For trademark registration, extension can be granted only after the payment of more fees.

Trademarks do not have authors or are not subjected to individual ownership whereas a copyright can have an individual ownership.

 Any litigation contesting the trademark registration in UAE can be handled in the Competition Regulation Committee (Ministry of Economy) or even the city courts. Whereas, the litigation regarding the copyright can be handled only in the city Courts.

In case there is a intellectual property rights violation with respect to the trademark registration in UAE, then there are penalties and product confiscation in the case of trademark registration.  But, in the case of copyright violation, the aspect of imprisonment also is added upon to it.

So the next time you want to register your brand, think and choose wisely in accordance to your business prospects.