New Director General for Dubai Customs

Gulf News reports (here) that Ahmed Butti has retired as the Director General of Dubai Customs. The new Director General of Dubai Customs is Ahmad Mahboub.

The post of Director General of Dubai Customs has a great impact on rights holders. The views of the Director General have a direct impact on how Customs behave towards shipments of counterfeit goods on everything from likelihood of detection to destruction.  There are two issues which regularly vex rights holders: whether action can be taken in free zones and whether an appropriate way of dealing with seized counterfeit goods is to allow them to be exported rather than destroyed.

The part of the Empty Quarter does not know Ahmad Mahboub and does not know his views on these two important questions and so waits eagerly for news of whether the current stance of Dubai Customs will change.

No new trade mark applications in Iraq

News from good friends SMAS that the Iraqi Trade Mark Office has stopped taking new trade mark applications until further notice. New regulations are due to be issued regarding legalisation of Powers of Attorney.

This part of the Empty Quarter is disappointed by this news. A Trade Mark Office should continue to function until new regulations are issued. Operations should only be suspended in the most unusual circumstances. This part of the Empty Quarter hopes that the new regulations will be issued soon so that operations can be re-started.

Libyan Trade Mark Office - Power of Attorney requirements (2)

Further to the news that the Libyan Trade Mark Office will not accept Powers of Attorney executed by agents using powers of delegation and require Powers of Attorney to be executed by rights holders (reported here), there is news today from good friends SMAS (not a ciruclar but in advice) that the Trade Mark Office requires Powers of Attorney to be legalised in the applicant's 'home' country and not elsewhere.

This part of the Empty Quarter does not agree. The key issue is whether the Power of Attorney is validly executed. The legalisation steps only verify the authenticity of the Notary Public or the local Embassy.  

UAE Trade Mark Office - no more changes to pending applications

An announcement sent on 18 February 2014 by the Trade Mark Office to all agents in the UAE changes the practice on amendments to pending applications. The change is stated to be effective from 1 February 2014. 

Prior to the notification the Trade Mark Office have taken a fairly relaxed approach to making amendments to applications prior to examination allowing changes of applicant, address, specification and so on. The notification makes it clear that the Trade Mark Office will no longer accept amendments to any part of a pending application. Any amendments have to be made after registration.

This part of the Empty Quarter believes in certainty and so understands the need for this change. It is only right that the application should be fixed, provided that obvious typographical errors can be corrected.  Change always takes some getting used to.

Changes at the Saudi Trade Mark Office

The Saudi Arabian Trade Mark Office (and the IT company, Thiqah, which is implementing many of the changes) continues to keep local and regional practitioners on their toes.

The Registrar resigned last week. There is an acting Registrar now leading the Trade Mark Office.

The recent changes in practice to specifications have been amended. The requirement that either the class heading or only specific terms listed in the 2012 version of the 10th Edition of the Nice Classification could be selected (reported here) has been amended. It is now possible to select both the class heading and specific terms listed in the 2012 version of the 10th Edition of the Nice Classification. This changed happened sometime last week, was not announced by the Trade Mark Office or Thiqah and was not applied to all trade mark agents at the same time. 

This part of the Empty Quarter is finding the many changes at the Trade Mark Office in Saudi Arabia difficult to keep up with and even more difficult to keep clients up to date with.

Saudi Arabia to hold 3rd Saudi IP Forum in April 2014 at KACST - updated

News that the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), the home of the Saudi Patent Office, will host the 3rd Saudi Intellectual Property Forum on 22/23/24 April 2014. The Forum will focus on Intellectual Property Rights and Enforcement and the draft program refers to speakers from KACST, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, WIPO, the World Health Organisation, the Ministry of Information and Culture, the General Customs Authority, Microsoft, the BSA, Autodisc, and others.

The Forum is mentioned in the events page of KACST here, and now there is useful information on the Forum website here. 

The Forum appears not to be a continuation of the Arab Forum for IPR Protection (http://www.ipr.gov.sa/).

This part of the Empty Quarter welcomes news of this event, timed to be so close to World Intellectual Property Day, and hopes there will be as much action as there is talk.

Further news on amendments to the UAE Commercial Fraud law

With thanks to good friends Clyde & Co, further news (following earlier post here) on the amendments to the Commercial Fraud law can be found on their website here.