Q: How can I get a patent for an idea I'm working on? And I want to protect my idea when it's sent off to be manufactured.

Q: I have a shop in an eCommerce store, I have a trade license under General Trading here in the UAE that allows me to sell, buy, export... etc. products. I got an email from the store asking me to sign an attestation regarding all of my products for branded and copyrighted items. I sell Korean products that I buy from the source and sometimes from smaller shops that were able to get the products before me. Among the products that they gave me as examples were a shirt and pants-inspired outfit from a well-known Korean show. This was handmade by a small business in Korea. The show did not to my knowledge (even after research) sell such merch. I know that if someone sold a fake item that the brand sold it means they are infringing the copyright, but I am still unsure of the item mentioned above and if what I think is correct.

Q: Which organisations are responsible for trademark and copyright registration in UAE? I am looking to register the trademark for my company but I am not sure where to start.

Intellectual Property! The concept seems to some individuals to represent an ambiguous abstraction. To others it represents incongruity. But for many, without a doubt, Intellectual Property (IP) is a potent tool. IP is an intangible asset and is a legal concept for which rights are recognised for the human mind’s creativity. Under this specialised law, owners are granted rights to diverse intangible assets such as inventions, words, phrases, symbols, designs, artistic works and such.

As the need arose to create laws for the protection of personal properties like movable and immovable assets and regulation of transferring their rights of ownership, it had also become crucial to regulate the intellectual property rights as in artistic and literary works, inventions, companies' logos and products/services...etc. Seeking to protect such rights requires a basic knowledge about their origin and significance.

UAE Trademark Law creates the legal framework for the protection of registered trademarks in the UAE. The law includes the definition of trademark, signs that cannot be registered as trademarks, registration and cancellation procedures, sanctions for unlawful use of trademarks, and so on.

The UAE Copyright Law provides protection to authors of the works and owners of related rights in case of violation of their rights within the United Arab Emirates. Protection of the law does not include ideas, procedures, work methods, mathematical concepts, abstract principles and facts, but however extends to the innovative expression of any thereof.