Contract Watch: IP Agreements
Type
E-journal
Date
29 May 2015
Jurisdiction
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Taxonomy
General Intellectual Property law, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, General Contract Law
Copyright
LexisNexis
Relevant company
Lexis Middle East Law Alert
Analysis
Melissa Murray, Partner at Bird & Bird, takes a look at contracts designed to protect intellectual property (IP), which have become more sophisticated in the Middle East as the region's understanding of IP and commercial opportunities have evolved. Traditionally, agreements between parties in the region made little or no mention of IP rights but there has been a noticeable shift towards an increased number of such provisions in contracts specifically tailored to these rights.
GCC LAWS
Different Middle East countries have, to varying extents, enacted legislation on IP protection so it is important to tailor the clauses to the specific countries where the agreement applies.
In 1987, a GCC Patent Law was promulgated along with a Trademark Law. The latter was meant to apply uniformly throughout Member States and suggested unified implementing regulations for trademark protection across the GCC. A GCC Patent Office was established in Saudi Arabia in 1998. This made it possible to obtain patent protection in all six member states through filing a single patent application.