Following UAE Cabinet Decision No. 51 of 2019 and Circular No.3 of 2019 issued by the UAE Trade Mark Office official fees for a number of trade mark matters have been reduced or waivered with effect from 7 July 2019.
The main fee reduction relates to registration and renewal fees with official fees having been reduced by around US$900. Other fees reduced or waivered relate to late filing of priority document, obtaining copies of the Trade Mark Journal, cancellation of registrations and renewing a Trade Mark Agency.
Elsewhere round the region Saudi Arabia have also indicated that there will be reductions in official fees and we are monitoring the situation closely and to see whether any other GCC country follows suit.
This follows the announcement from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) earlier this month to reduce their fees. This is a Government initiative to reduce the tax and administrative charges on businesses and to further encourage businesses to proactively apply for trade mark registrations.
The renewal fee for trade mark registration has been reduced by half to RMB 500 (around US$ 75). To boost online filings, CNIPA also reduced official fees by 10% for applications submitted via its online filing system, such as an application for a new trade mark, application for a license recordal etc. For applications for change of agency, name and address, official fees are waived if such applications are filed online. While parties will enjoy the reduction/waive of the official fee for online filings, they should be aware that they will not receive a hard copy approval/certificate from CNIPA resulting from such online filings with the sole exception of applications for new trademark. Whether to proceed with online filings or not will therefore depend on whether a hard copy approval/certificate is needed for possible enforcement and/or commercial use.
