GCC Patent Office: Suspension of GCC patent filings

JAH would like to advise its associates and clients that the GCC Supreme Council has approved the Amended Patent Law (Regulation) for Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) during its 41st meeting held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on January 5, 2021.  The amended GCC Patent Law is still not available to the public; however, one of the major amendments is that the GCC Patent Office (GCCPO) announced it is not accepting new patent unified filing under the GCC Patent Law covering all six GCC states effective January 04, 2021.  However, patent protection in the GCC states will be available through separate patent filing under the national patent laws at the National Patent Offices via Paris Convention or PCT in each of the six GCC member states as 12 months’ priority or PCT national phase applications.   Meanwhile, the GCCPO will continue to process pending applications and to accept the payment of annuities on pending and granted applications.

Further information on this matter will follow once the amended GCC Patent Law is published and more detail is made available by the authorities concerned.

 

CLASS HEADING IN ALGERIA

As per recent directives of the Algerian Institute of Industrial property (INAP) please note that for filing new trademark applications: use of list of goods/services in class headings is acceptable for all goods and services classes except goods in classes 3 and 5 which should be specified since class headings for these two classes are not acceptable.  Also, use of the phrase “all goods/services in a certain class is not acceptable”.  Trademark applications with the phrase all goods/services in a certain class and class headings in classes 3 and 5 without exact specification of the items of goods in the class headings will be refused because each claimed list of goods in classes 3 and 5 should be specified in details to avoid any possible rejection during the course of examination of trademark applications.

 

SAUDI TRADEMARK OFFICE- RENEWALS

Please be advised that trademark renewal instructions should be received at least two weeks prior to the deadline of the renewal since the power of attorney should be accepted as first step before the payment of the renewal fees as per the recent changes in the practice of the Saudi TM Office noting that a legalized power of attorney is required for the renewal of trademarks which we have originally registered unless we hold a new power of attorney from the registrant of the mark executed within the last year from renewal due date.

 

VAT IN OMAN

The Sultanate of Oman issued the Value Added Tax Law under Sultani Decree No 121/2020 to start imposing a five percent VAT within six months. The tax will be imposed on most goods and services, with specific exceptions in the law and regulations, and it will also be imposed on the import of goods into the Sultanate with specific exceptions in the law and regulation as well. It is worth mentioning that Oman will be the fourth country in the GCC to implement the VAT. The unified VAT Agreement for the GCC countries was signed in November 2016 and came into effect in 2018.In this regard, we invite our clients to provide their filing, renewal and any other payment related instructions before April 2021 to avoid, as much as possible, such additional fees of VAT on payments.

Should you have any questions, or require any additional information on the above updates or any Ip matters in our region, please contact us at info@jahcoip.com