Legal Protection for Trademarks and Patents By Attorney Abdulrahman Al-Houti

Trademarks and patents are considered among the most important elements of intellectual property, which are aligned with the majority of local legislations of member states in international agreements aimed at protecting creativity and innovation and enhancing economic competitiveness. One of the most significant of these is the TRIPS Agreement (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), to which all World Trade Organization member states adhere.

The legislative framework regulating trademarks in Kuwait is subject to the Trademark System of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries through Law 13/2015 regarding the regulation of trademarks. This law established a clear legal framework for organizing rights associated with trademarks and ensuring their protection in line with international standards, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which Kuwait joined in December 2014. This resulted in procedures to regulate the presence of trademarks in the Kuwaiti market, starting with opening the door for priority rights claims at the beginning of 2015, reaching 200,000 registered trademarks in 2021 according to Ministry of Commerce statistics.

Despite this large number of documented trademarks, it is surprising that over 25% of trademarks present in the Kuwaiti commercial market are unregistered. This highlights the importance of raising awareness among commercial companies and business owners about trademarks as an essential part of the modern commercial system, as trademarks give products and services provided by companies an identity that contributes to building trust with customers or consumers.

Among the legal risks faced by companies operating without a documented trademark are commercial identity theft, where others can exploit unregistered marks without legal restrictions, difficulty in claiming compensation in case of disputes due to lack of proof of ownership, in addition to losing exclusive rights with an increased likelihood of registration by other parties, which forces the original mark owner to relinquish it.

In the case of registration, the trademark owner enjoys legal protection for their trademark in Kuwait for 10 years, renewable for similar periods. During this period, the law prohibits any party from using or imitating the mark without the owner’s permission.

We advise companies and business owners in the Kuwaiti market or international companies wishing to enter it, as well as small and medium enterprise owners, to immediately register trademarks to avoid future disputes and to regularly review registered marks to ensure continued protection. We also call on the relevant authorities in the Ministry of Commerce to launch an awareness campaign on the importance of trademark registration as part of companies’ business strategy.

Closely related to trademarks is the subject of patents, which are regulated in Kuwait under Law No. 71 of 2013 regarding the issuance of the Patent Regulation Law for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. This is one of the common law systems among GCC countries aimed at unifying patent registration procedures in Gulf countries.

A patent is granted for a non-renewable period of 20 years after its registration application undergoes technical and legal examination to ensure the invention meets the conditions of novelty, innovation, and applicability. Then, a patent certificate is issued, granting its owner legal protection for the product or invention content in all GCC countries from the date of patent grant. The owner has the right to manufacture, sell, import, or use the product or subject of the invention throughout the patent’s validity period, which ends after twenty years from the date of filing the patent application.

In conclusion, I believe that the laws regulating trademarks and patents in Kuwait, derived from the unified system of GCC countries, provide business owners in the Kuwaiti commercial market with effective protection that guarantees the rights of companies and inventors and, on the other hand, creates a stable environment for investment and creativity. From my perspective, all that is lacking is the adoption by relevant authorities of an awareness plan to increase consciousness about the importance of intellectual property in general and the development of necessary mechanisms to combat infringements upon it.