Ministry of Economy shares updates on Industry Property and Patents amended and new laws
The Ministry of Economy (MoE) shared updates on Industrial Property and Patents, that were announced as part of the largest legislative amendments in the UAE’s history.
At a special media briefing, H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and SMEs, highlighted that the number of patent applications submitted to the Ministry of Economy by the end of the year 2021 reflected a growth of more than 20 percent compared to last year.
Patent applications submitted in 2021 were distributed among various sectors such as machinery and construction (23 percent), chemical engineering (24 percent), pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (24 percent), electricity and metals (7 percent), and information and communication technology (9 percent).
The Minister noted that the UAE was ranked first in the Arab world for the sixth consecutive year by the Global Innovation Index 2021 owing to its success in developing an integrated system for intellectual property applications and services. The country has put in place supportive and stimulating policies to enhance the role of intellectual property in general and industrial property and patents in particular as they are among the main drivers of economic recovery and progress in various sectors, noted the Minister.
H.E. Al Falasi added: “The new industrial property law is one of the most important initiatives that the Ministry of Economy and its partners have developed in order to drive growth based on knowledge and innovation and support entrepreneurship.
Fundamental amendments to the new law to facilitate & stimulate innovation and intellectual property in the country is that it ensures the complete protection of industrial property rights through the addition of industrial property rights that were not included in previous legislation, and the adoption of four new procedures to achieve flexibility in the management and examination of applications and facilitating and accelerating the procedures for receiving, examining, registering and granting them. The new provisions are:
Expedited applications, a fast track channel for patent applications through which formal and substantive examinations of the submitted application can be completed quickly.
Conversion of patent applications to utility certificate requests, and vice versa. This step has an important role in increasing the number of patents and utility certificates granted in the country. It also increases the benefit of utility certificates as an important and useful option in protecting simple inventions and innovations of a tangible nature, so that it becomes a flexible step towards obtaining the full patent.
The possibility of dividing patent applications, utility certificates and industrial designs into several applications to allow protection for the invention in the various stages of its development.
Retrieval of applications, as it allows the possibility of restoring a patent application or an industrial model before or after granting it.
The new laws also updates the procedures for disputes regarding industrial property applications which make it more flexible and faster by allowing re-examination after granting, and creating a mechanism that allows submitting grievance to the Ministry before resorting to the judiciary.
The Ministry of Economy provides integrated services regarding various industrial property applications according to the best international standards, through its website, which can be accessed online. H.E. Al Falasi noted that efforts are still ongoing to develop these services to meet all requirements, procedures and mechanisms stemming from the new law.
