(MENAFN- The Peninsula) QNA
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has announced the launch of the electronic trademark registration service for entrepreneurs through the Ministry's website.
This comes within the framework of the Ministry's keenness to improve and develop services to upgrade the business services system in Qatar and to facilitate and expedite the delivery of services to the Ministry's clients through the adoption of the best international practices in the field of intellectual property, and provide an integrated electronic system of high quality to support owners of trademarks and the preservation of intellectual property rights, in accordance with applicable laws and conventions and international treaties.
The new electronic registration service is that the applications are submitted and checked electronically to ensure the quality of the service and its completion in time to reach the final decision to register the trademark, in order to facilitate the completion and shorten the time. In addition to the issuance of several periodic reports to follow up and improve services.
The Ministry specifies the conditions that must be met for registration of the trademark, such as being distinctive and not descriptive, and shall not be within the marks that may not be under the National Law No. 9 of 2002, in addition to complying with the time limit prescribed by law.
MEC said that the benefits of registering the trademark for entrepreneurs include ensuring protection against unfair competition, imposing penalties in national law on competitors who infringe the legitimate intellectual property rights on the registered trademark in Qatar, as well as the possibility of proving the violations and referring them to the judicial authorities to prove the rights manufacturer or service provider owner of the registered trademark and obtain appropriate compensation, in addition to blocking the registration of the mark as a trade name for commercial companies or competing companies to precede the registration of the trademark in the State of Qatar.
Other benefits are to support national industries because the owner uses the trademark himself on his/ her products by granting him a licence to use the mark and obtain a material return under a license contract or by assigning the trademark under a written contract. It also provides the services of proving the licence contract by using the mark or service of assigning the mark for their execution against third others after submitting the required documents and paying their fees.
The Ministry highlighted the results of the non-registration of the trademark on the products or services provided, such as allowing competitors to use or register a trade name similar to the unregistered original mark, the original trademark owner here loses his rights and does not meet all the protection criteria because he did not register the mark, and he has the burden of proving his right to the mark before the courts.
The Ministry of Economy had earlier launched the Certificate of Deposit and Preservation of Rights for Copyright, and services for registering the patent application electronically and intellectual property through its website.
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