Abu Dhabi,
April 29, 2022 – Terming issuance of the new Executive Regulation as a
vital development, H.E Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for
Entrepreneurship and SMEs said that the UAE has achieved remarkable results in
proliferating the role of innovation and promoting intellectual property while
encouraging innovators and inventors following the issuance of Federal Law No
(11) of 2021 on the Regulation and Protection of Industrial Property Rights in
line with the Cabinet Resolution No (6) of 2022.
H.E said that
the new Executive Regulation complements the legislative system of Industrial
Property Rights and patents in the country by means of developing transparent
measures of patent applications, speeding up the granting of these patents, and
increasing their numbers in the upcoming stage.
Al Falasi
added: “The regulation assists in providing a comprehensive legislative
environment that encourages innovation and patent applications in the UAE. It
will further project UAE as a top destination for innovators in various fields
– including technology, new economy, research, and development. Moreover, it
will promote its position as a competitive and attractive environment for
fundamental investments, hence boosting the pillars of the new economic module
based on knowledge and innovation. It will also promote the UAE’s leadership in
global competitive indexes, such as the Global Innovation Index (GII), the
Global Entrepreneurship Index, and Global Competitiveness Index.”
The Regulation
further lays the legal foundation for companies and individuals to bring
forward their latest ideas and innovations. Through this regulation, various
procedures, conditions, requirements, and disciplines regarding industrial
property applications have been clarified. It further illustrates various roles
and stages through which the application goes, starting from the stage of
application to the registering of the industrial property right, along with its
consequent rights, privileges, and objections. This comes in line with the best
international practices in the field, especially those relating to patents,
industrial projects, Utility Certificates, integrated circuits, and the
protection of undisclosed information.
The Executive
Regulation additionally considers key provisions stipulated in international
agreements relating to industrial property rights, guaranteeing the speed,
flexibility, and effectiveness of the inspection and registration of industrial
property applications, and providing protection for owners of inventions. It
further offers extra flexibility and concessions for patents and industrial
property for entrepreneurship, SMEs, startups, academic institutions, as well
as facilities and companies – including departments for research, development,
and innovation, and international companies. All of which are set to
effectively benefit from the industrial property services offered by the
Ministry of Economy by registering patents for its activities.
The regulations
also include knowledge sharing procedures for new inventions to make use of
research and development in the private sector, academic institutions, and SMEs
and startups in the country. The regulations also specify the time during which
patents’ examination results would be announced, achieving the ministry’s goal
to use these regulations to reduce the time periods from 42 months to six
months.
The regulations
also define mechanisms for substantive and formal examinations and the
documents related to industrial property rights applications, as well as the
controls for formulating protection claims in accordance with international
requirements. They also define the technical and legal bases in calculating the
principle of priority submission for the same invention, requirements, and data
of the industrial property rights registry, as well as specify the requirements
and procedures related to correcting and amending industrial property rights
applications. In addition, the regulations clarify various aspects related to
the international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, overseen by
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the mechanisms of
calculating annual fees for industrial property rights, the scope of protection
and assignment of these rights, and other related aspects.
The executive
regulations detail the new procedures and rights introduced by the new
Industrial Property Law in various categories of industrial property rights
that were not embedded in previous legislation. These include the protection of
integrated circuit layout designs, which plays an important role in stimulating
and protecting electronic innovations and inventions, that in turn supports the
path of advanced technology in the country. This is in addition to protecting
undisclosed information, which encourages research and development in the
industrial and commercial fields.
The executive
regulations also include various provisions related to urgent requests, turning
patent applications into benefit certificate applications and vice versa. They
provide the possibility to divide the applications for patents, benefit
certifications, and industrial designs into multiple applications, which
facilitates securing various stages of their progress, and helps to organize
the mechanisms of reclaiming applications and the complaints mechanisms related
to application results.
The patents and
benefit certificate applications submitted to the ministry between the years
2020 and 2021 achieved a growth rate of 26.7 per cent. On the other hand, the
applications’ growth rate in the first quarter of 2022 was 17.8 per cent
compared to the same period in 2021. The main fields and activities included in
those applications were transportation, construction and mining, electricity,
textiles, and paper, among other vital fields.