New UAE law protects Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights of its owners

The amendments of the Federal Law concerning copyrights and neighboring rights maximizes the contribution of creative industries in the UAE economy and provide protection to authors of the works and the holders of the neighboring rights, in case an aggression against their rights occurs.

The amendments offer special benefits for people of determination in order to enhance their benefit and participation in this vital sector. 

The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

The law covers all substantive issues pertaining to author’s rights and neighboring rights, including the right to determine first publication of the work, the right of writing the work in his name and the right to protest against alteration of the work if the alteration leads to distortion of the author’s intent.

Trade Marks

The federal law concerning Trade Marks was amended with the aim of expanding the scope of protection. The amendments offer protection to three-dimensional trademarks, holograms, sound trademarks such as musical tones associated with a company and that distinguish its products, and smell trademarks such as creating a distinctive scent for the company or brand.

The updates also include registering geographical names of trademarks or products whose name is associated with the names of specific geographic regions, countries or cities and are famous for producing this product, in order to enhance the UAE position in promoting its famous products like dates.

Among the changes is the abolition of the requirement to have a trade license to allow the registration of a trademark, and granting SME owners a temporary protection to protect the trademark of their products during participation in exhibitions.