Abu Dhabi, an Emirate state in the United Arab Emirates, recently enacted a new directive to regulate trade names, in particular to prevent the development of conflicts with trademarks.
This law is applicable locally and is in line UAE trademark laws. It applies to companies operating in Abu Dhabi and using trade names. This law regulates which trade names can or cannot be registered.
The purpose of the law is to prevent the continuing conflicts between trademarks and trade names in the country, which are currently a genuine issue because the two databases were never cross-checked. Many trademark owners have long suffered from their trademarks being registered and used as trade names. Indeed, trade names are not published as it is the case for trademarks, and therefore, it is not possible to object to their adoption. Thus, the new directive will help to prohibit the registration of trade names which are identical or similar to locally or internationally registered trademarks. In the absence of the trademark owner’s authorization, it will thus be impossible to register an identical or similar trade name.
In the future, this new law should minimise conflicts between trade names and registered trademarks.