Unlike its neighboring countries, Qatar still announces its accepted marks through a hard copy gazette issued at the beginning of each month. This technique unfortunately results in the gazette being available only to the country’s residents. It is worthy to note though that the opposition period in Qatar is one of the longest in the area as the law provides 120 days for interested parties to submit their oppositions.
However, on July 29, 2021, Law No. 11 of 2021 on Protection of Trademarks, Copyrights, and Related Rights of FIFA was issued. As Qatar will be the host of the games this year, this law was issued to regulate and govern the registration of all Intellectual Property Rights belonging to FIFA including trademarks.x
In addition to recognizing all FIFA trademarks as well-known trademarks and granting them protection regardless of their registration status in Qatar, the law provides new regulations to expedite and ease the process of registration of those marks. One of the most remarkable changes is the opposition period, which was set to be 15 days for marks associated with the FIFA instead of 120 days.
Even though the new procedures only affects the FIFA trademarks, we really hope that they would help the Trademark Department in Qatar realize the importance of accelerating the TM registration process in general and take the right measures to amend the existing laws.
By: Nada Elgendy
For further information in respect of the above, please reach out to us on qatar@alyafi-ip.com.
