TRADEMARKS IN UAE
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What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a reference that is shaped in a unique figure in order to differentiate the products created or services provided by a company from the products manufactured or services offered by another company. Amid the types of trademarks are texts, letters, numerals, illustrations, colors, sketches, shapes, logos, icons, or a combination of any of the previous. Audio trademarks (sounds) and olfactory trademarks (scents) can also form trademarks.
Introduction
Trademarks are regarded as a process of warranty for both the product and the consumer as they stop the confusion between products carrying specific trademarks with similar manufactured that have a different trademark as well to building trust in the products. Producers began using trademarks in order to categorize their products among the increasing sets of goods and merchandises and the emergence of like products. Producers also intend to perfect their producing in order to retain their customers and the quality of their products which assures their endurance against the competitors.
Trademarks also play a significant role in promoting and publicizing policies that companies respect whether to upgrade themselves, their services or their goods. These trademarks assist in one way or another in motivating the customers and companies to effectively compete in order to maintain quality and make continuous improvements that secure a good reputation and exposure.

History of Trademarks:
The concept of trademarks emerged in the middle ages mainly within specific business and trading communities in France and Italy. These organizations started to place their names on their products. For the duration of that period, trademarks were one of two types as per the purpose of use. The first reason was for branding trademark used on animals the second reason was to identify the product, origin and to guarantee quality.
The Birth of Recent Trademarks:
During the industrial rebellion and the import export boom of international trade in the new world as a result of many transformations in the industrial systems, trademarks played an essential role until it became a necessary element in business, manufacturing, and distribution through supplying consumers with numerous goods of the same type but varying in quality and features and at different prices. Equally, opportunities for selection were given through choosing diverse names for the products in the market which is precisely what is meant by trademarks.
The UAE-Trademark Law 37/1992, as amended by UAE Law 8/2002
On 12th January 1993, the UAE-Trademark Law No. 37/1992 amended by the UAE-Law No. 8/2002 came into force. Its Executive Regulations were published on 2nd February 1993. The U.A.E. is a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property since September 19, 1996, and of the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purpose of the Registration of Marks under the Nice Agreement (9th edition).
The Trademark Law, containing 50 articles, poses the opportunity to secure the protection by registering trademarks in the U.A.E. The new law provides a 30 day notice for filing objections starting from the day of publication of the trademark's registration.
A trademark registration is valid for 10 years as of the date of filing the application renewable for similar periods. The trademark owner has a grace period of three months as from the date of expiry.
Use of a trademark is not compulsory for filing application for registration or for keeping the registration effective. Nevertheless, any concerned party may demand deletion of a trademark from registration, if the owner fails to utilize the trademark in the U.A.E. for 5 consecutive years from the date of registration.
Illegal and/or unauthorized use of a registered trademark by any third party, use of a fake or copy trade/service mark, application to one’s goods a registered trademark belonging to another party in bad faith, dealing in goods carrying a counterfeit trademark, delivering services under a forged service mark, are crimes forbidden by law.
Registration Process
In the UAE, the Ministry of Economy is responsible for trademark registration. Any person set to use a trademark to differentiate his products or facilities can apply to register them in alignment with the perception of this law. The trademark registration is legal for all the seven emirates. The ministry gives its decision on the application within 30 days from the date of submission provided that the terms and conditions of this law and its superior regulations are met.
If the ministry certifies a trade mark, it will be announced in its bulletin and two Arabic newspapers before the registration at the expense of the applicant.
When the trademark is registered, the trademark owner will be given a certificate containing the products details and the personal’s owner information.

Fake Trademarks in UAE

First Case: The detention of Fake auto spare parts
In November 2012, The Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector in the Department of Economic Development (DED) seized more than sixty four thousand counterfeit auto parts which is worth three million dirhams. The detained duplicates contained famous Japanese brands such as Nissan, Mitsubishi and Toyota.
This fake auto part seizure was considered the largest crack-down till date, the CCCP specialist team intensively followed-up consumers complains and made several field trips along with many other random inspections to a warehouse in the Dubai Investment Park. The CCCP discovered as well the existence of a special printer device that designs and print the fake logos to label and stamp the illegal auto parts. The seized parts were oil filters, fans belts, brake systems, valves and front hood.
According to Abdullah Al Shehi the director of Compliance & Consumer Protection at CCCP

Sector, the department is committed to fight global counterfeits refrigerants in order to curb all kinds of product piracy. He ensured that the confiscated parts were completely destroyed as they present a main danger to the safety of means of transportation and individuals. The vendors of the seized parts were also punished.
The CCCP department has strong intention to fight any kind of fraud commercial. This form of illegal acts threatens Dubai legal trading interchange and put the country economic reputation in hazard. It is worth to mention that Dubai consumer protection inspectors are highly equipped with the most hi-tech mobiles and the latest computerized tools that assist in discovering any smuggling attempt across Dubai’s entries.

Second Case: DED seizes AED 9.5 million worth of counterfeit cosmetics
In March 2104 the Department of Economic Development (DED) invaded a storehouse in Ras Al Khor and confiscated around 1.2 million pieces of cosmetic products. The total amount of the manufactures detained is estimated at AED 9.5 million.
The seized goods contained duplicates of remarkable brands such as Revlon and Max Factor.
The removed items included mascara, which was considered for 66 per cent of the confiscation in addition to other cosmetics such as lipsticks and face powder. The warehouse was penalized and the removed products were abolished to prevent any health threat to the public.
According to Abdullah Al Shehi, the Director of Intellectual Property Protection Department at CCCP this detention was the biggest of its type to date.
This raid was part of the department initiatives to shield international and local trademarks from any violations. Al Shehi emphasized that consistent interaction with brands’ owners is definitely a great support to the department team to uncover any counterfeits. Nevertheless, the department will continue its random and organized inspections to protect brands against any breaches.
Enhancing Dubai’s place as a business centre will eliminate any threat to the local market as well it will preserve the consumer rights.
The department fundamental goal is to protect the products and trademarks against any infringements in harmony with the Dubai Government vision which is to build a competitive and resilient economy with the highest standards that ensures healthy lives and guaranteed global commercial trademark protection.

Final Thoughts and Analysis
Every product in the market faces the threat of a similar, identical fake substitute. In today's dynamic, competitive business world distinguishing authentic products form others gives a strong reason to authorities and governments to enforce the trademark law that is now more important than ever before.
The international and the local trademark laws play an essential role in protecting the goods and products from a third party exploitation. The trademark law main objective is to prevent any harm caused by fake brands. Business enterprise wants to keep their business profit growing, therefore maintaining their consumers' loyalty is significantly important to increase their business revenue growth. Consequently, reputed companies will strive to keep their products in higher standards in order to differentiate their goods from others which eventually will establish and develop a long-term trustworthy and goodwill relationship with their clients.
In the first case that I have reported about, the fake auto-parts operation poses a very dangerous and deadly hazard to the UAE citizens. In such a situation, we cannot rule out the possibility of what if the CCCP department did not seize those illegal auto-parts. In this case, the scope and scale of trademark registration present a serious threat to public health and safety. The growth of this counterfeit business impacts the auto-part industry’s safety standards which is now becoming a global concern. However, we must at this point consider the important role that our government is playing to keep a tight vigil on smuggling and illegal trading the government main effort is to protect and save its citizens from any harm.

In the second case that I have reported about the counterfeit cosmetics, this toxic trade may cause serious eyes infections, skin diseases and some life threatening rashes which can lead to long-term health issues. The confiscated mascaras were tested and it contained double the acceptable level of copper which is not allowed for use.
Again alarm bells should start ringing awakening consumers as well as businesses about the great impact of the trademark law enforcement in our society. In my opinion, our government should launch a nation-wide educating campaign that highlights the health and safety threats when using fake products.
I believe that a major step should be taken by governments, consumers and brands owners to fight illegal trademarking. Everyone must realise the significant role he has to play, the government must increase and double its efforts to monitor markets, country entries and launch public awareness campaigns. At the same time consumers should make smart decisions by only selecting and buying authentic products that protect their lives and health from any harm. Companies also have a heavier duty, they should be extremely vigilant and appoint world-wide specialists to observe and supervise the markets from any fake products.
Finally, counterfeiting of products is a dangerous and rapid growing problem that needs global measurement and efforts to combat. The copied product trading is a serious threat to the economy, health and safety of any nation. Several procedures could be taken to stop this toxic trade and in my opinion the first step is by a fully implementation of the trademark law.

References 1. https://www.abudhabi.ae/portal/public/en/business/business_startup_and_operationalisation/startup_basics/gen_info71?doc 2. http://www.gulfbpg.com/index.php?action=faq&subaction=trademark 3. http://www.utmps.com/getattachment/d9cd12ed-3363-4114-bcb7-fd2d510f24ba/UAE-Trademark-Law-(1).aspx 4. http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/sme/en/documents/wipo_magazine/02_2002.pdf 5. http://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/ded-cosmetics-561532 6. http://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/ded-counterfeit-451399