Eid Al Adha 2013 holidays

With thanks to good friends SMAS, who sent this out today, here is a table of government holidays across the region:

Bahrain - Monday 14 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013Egypt - Monday 14 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Iraq - Tuesday 15 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Jordan - Monday 14 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Kuwait - Friday 11 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Lebanon - Tuesday 15 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Libya - Monday 14 October 2013 to Sunday 20 October 2013
Morocco - Wednesday 16 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Oman - Monday 14 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Palestine - Sunday 13 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Qatar - Sunday 13 October 2013 to Sunday 20 October 2013
Saudi Arabia - Thursday 10 October 2013 to Sunday 20 October 2013
Sudan - Saturday 12 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Syria - Sunday 13 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Tunisia - Tuesday 15 October 2013 to Wednesday 16 October 2013
U.A.E - Saturday 12 October 2013 to Saturday 19 October 2013
Yemen - Sunday 13 October 2013 to Sunday 20 October 2013

Iraq - progress of trade mark applications

News of progress of the examination of trade mark applications at the Trade Mark Office in Iraq.

In December 2010 a report was received that the Trade Mark Office were examining application numbers 44,000 to 45,000. In January 2012 it was reported that the Trade Mark Office were examining a group of applications bearing numbers in the 50,000 range. And then today news that the Trade Mark Office is examining applications in the 52,000 range.

This part of the Empty Quarter feels this is painfully slow progress.  

Iraq - Trade Mark searches

News from good friends Saba & Co that searches at the Trade Mark Office in Iraq are taking up to 6 months to complete.

Saba & Co offer an alternative which is for them to search all the applications they have handled as well as all publications in the Official Gazette from 2004 until now. 

The Thomson Compumark Serion system claims to be able to search all marks published from 1976 to (at the time of typing this post) 30 May 2013.

This part of the Empty Quarter believes that information held by a trade mark office should be readily accessible and that inaccurate, incomplete or delayed search results are not beneficial to consumers or rights holders.

Tunisia - delays at the Trade Mark Office

News that there are significant delays at the Trade Mark Office in Tunisia with registration certificates taking three to four years to be issued after the end of the opposition period.

This part of the Empty Quarter feels that delays are not in the interests of anyone involved in the process of trade mark registration and wonders what can possibly be so difficult about producing a certificate that simply reproduces details which are set out in an application and should be set out in the Trade Mark Office's own systems.

Legalisation of Powers of Attorney in Iraq

The Trade Mark Office in Iraq requires that an original Power of Attorney from the applicant is submitted with the application. The Power of Attorney cannot be from an agent on behalf of the applicant unless the original Power of Attorney from the applicant to the agent is also submitted (see here for earlier post).

The Power of Attorney must be legalised before being submitted to the Trade Mark Office. That involves legalisation to the Iraqi Embassy in the country of execution. The Power of Attorney must then be stamped by the Tax Department in Iraq, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iraq and Ministry of Justice in Iraq all of which can take more than four months. The hint of a silver lining is that there are no additional fees for the late filing of the Power of Attorney.

This part of the Empty Quarter continues to hope that countries will do away with the need for legalisation as it is an unnecessary administrative and financial burden on rights holders which acts as a barrier to entry to the market and delays the processing of applications for marks.

Libya - Trade Mark Office update

Following earlier posts here and here on the delays following the reopening of the Trade Mark Office in Libya news yesterday that the Trade Mark Office is not issuing receipts for new applications due to the volume of applications received.

Qatar Trade Mark Office delays

Further to earlier posts here and here there is more news on the delays at the Qatari Trade Mark Office. 

The Trade Mark Office has recently moved which is leading to further delays in processing and examining applications.  News from a reliable source says that we should expect delays of a year from now for examination of applications filed in 2012 and delay of a year and a half to two years for applications filed in 2013.

IP Panorama for SMEs from WIPO available in Arabic

According to the WIPO website IP Panorama is "The Most Advanced E-learning Content on Intellectual Property for your Business". Available in Arabic here. WIPO go on to say that:

• IP PANORAMA was developed jointly by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under a project entitled, ‘The Joint Development of E-learning Content’ from 2004 to 2007.
• IP PANORAMA was designed to help SMEs utilize and manage Intellectual Property (IP) in their business strategy. In the past, most of the IP education materials had a legal orientation, even though businesses had a real need for a business-oriented IP education. IP PANORAMA increases IP-awareness among enterprise sector and a wide range of university students by providing practical knowledge about using IP for business success.
• IP PANORAMA relies on a brand new instructional design strategy based on ‘Storytelling’ along with educational technology. The learning content of each module was designed with a practical story regarding intellectual property. It is informative as well as interesting.
• IP PANORAMA deals with IP issues from a business perspective, especially focusing on the situation of SMEs.

Consisting of 13 modules IP Panorama appears to provide a good introduction to IP to any small or medium sized business.

This part of the Empty Quarter does not know how long the materials have been available in Arabic but welcomes the fact that WIPO have made them available.