Trademark registration in Saudi Arabia

Requirements:

1. A POA with an Apostille certification if the country of the applicant company is a member of the Hague Convention; otherwise, the POA should be legalized up to Saudi Consulate abroad. The validity of the POA is five years from the date of issuance, unless the duration on the POA is stated otherwise of a lesser period or the POA is revoked.
2. A certified copy of the priority document (corresponding home or foreign application/registration) in case priority is to be claimed.

It is permitted under the practice of the Saudi Trademark Registrar to file trademark applications and obtain a filing number and date as well as the official filing certificate with scanned colored copies of the apostilled/legalized POA and certified copy of priority document, the originals of which can be submitted at a later stage after filing for verification with no limit and at no additional cost.  Trademark applications with imminent priority deadlines; i.e., when the priority period (6 months) is about to lapse, can be filed without the copy of the priority document at the time of filing by submitting a request to the TM examiner for approval of late submission of copy of the priority document in view of the close deadline.

 The approval of such request remains at the discretion of the trademarks office which gives a period of 30 days maximum from the application filing date to submit the certified priority document.  In rare cases, the TM examiner stipulates local attestation of apostilled POA up to the Ministry of Justice for which agents needs to carry out. Currently the process of local attestation takes about one which needs booking of a prior appointment with the Ministry of Justice for same.  The trademark application, once filed, will be examined formally, published and finally registered though we do not submit the original legalized power of attorney.  This is in most cases whilst in some cases the Saudi Trademarks Registrar insists on the submission of the original legalized power of attorney before finally issuing the final registration certificate.  In the absence of Saudi Arabian Consulate in the applicant home country, it is acceptable to have it legalized in the nearest neighboring countries where Saudi Arabian Consulate is available. The validity of the POA is five years from the date of issuance, unless the duration on the POA is stated otherwise of a lesser period or the POA is revoked. 

According to the Saudi TM Law any document in non-Arabic submitted to the IP local authority must accompany certified Arabic translation. However, in some cases the examiner allows simple translation and for some they request locally certified Arabic translation.

Kindly be informed that as of July 22^nd 2021, the Saudi Trademark Office (STMO) has adopted an electronic system that uses the 11^th Edition version for 2021 list of the Nice classification by replacing the earlier version of 10th Edition. Due to this update, it is no more possible to opt for class heading along with the list of items and the items can either be selected as the class heading alone or the list of items separately. Therefore, please note that we can proceed with the application by one of the following options:

1. Using the class headings only, which will cover all the items envisaged under said class.
2. Using specific items as exactly mentioned in the detailed list of goods.

In this perspective, we would like to point out that the use of class headings will provide your client’s mark with a complete coverage in the whole class and such coverage will also provide a full legal protection of the trademark in the effect that no other party can obtain registration of an identical mark or confusingly similar one for any other item falling in the same class although they are not mentioned in the final registration certificate of the mark.

Time frame from filing a trade mark application up to registration, on average, in the case that no office action or oppositions are issued or lodged: 5-6 months.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND COPYRIGHT IN SAUDI ARABIA

Requirements for architectural designs/ written works/photographic works/artistic word and applied arts/topographic sculptural works /schematic works:

1. Original Power of Attorney legalized up to Saudi Arabian Consulate
2. High Quality Copies of the work (to be translated to Arabic)
3. Title and Type of Work
4. Full particulars of the applicant (Name, Nationality and full address)
5. A certified copy of home registration of the copyright.

Requirements for computer software & applications:

1. Original Power of Attorney Apostilled or legalized up to Saudi Arabian Consulate
2. A detailed explanation of the software with specification of its contents. (To be translated into Arabic)
3. The name and identity of the programmer (a photocopy of his passport or ID).
4. An undertaking that the program is not quoted, i.e., it is the programmer's own invention. If the opposite is proven, the application will be treated as canceled. (To be translated to Arabic)
5. A certified copy of home registration of the copyright.

Time frame to complete registration if no office actions are raised: 60 working days

You can start the registration of your brand in Saudi Arabia without the need to register as a User, then our assistants will register your customer account, write to us through the consultation form.

Register and file your trademark application in Saudi Arabia

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