Registering a trademark in the UAE costs AED 6,500 in total, paid in three separate stages, and gives you ten years of protection from the date you file. The Ministry of Economy and Tourism must decide on your application within 90 days under Article 12(3) of Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 on Trademarks, and the Ministry publishes an average delivery time of 45 working days.
The part that catches most applicants out is not the cost but the payment structure. AED 750 goes in at filing, AED 750 more once the mark is accepted, and AED 5,000 only after the objection window closes. Miss either of the two later payment deadlines and the Ministry charges a monthly penalty. This guide covers the whole sequence, the documents, what cannot be registered at all, the objection and grievance route, renewal, and what a registered mark actually lets you do against a copycat.
What a UAE Trademark Is, and What It Is Not
A trademark is any distinctive sign used to distinguish one business’s goods or services from another’s. Under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 that expressly includes names, words, signatures, letters, symbols, figures, drawings, packaging, shapes, a color or set of colors, three-dimensional marks and hologram marks. The decree-law also states that a distinctive sound or smell may be a trademark.
Sound and smell marks are the notable expansion in the 2021 law, and they put the UAE ahead of most of the region on non-traditional marks. In practice they are rare and demand strong evidence of distinctiveness, but the door is open in the statute.
Trademark, trade name and trade licence are three different things
This is the single most common misunderstanding among UAE business owners, and it costs money. Reserving a trade name gives you the right to use that name for your registered entity; it does not give you exclusivity over the brand you sell under. A trade licence authorizes an activity. Only a registered trademark gives you the right in Article 17(2) to stop third parties from using an identical or similar mark on related goods or services.
The practical consequence is that two businesses can hold perfectly valid but conflicting positions: one holding the reserved trade name at the economic department, the other holding the registered trademark at the Ministry. The trademark wins on brand use. If your brand name matters, register both. Trademarks are only one of the UAE’s intellectual property regimes: creative work, photographs and software fall under copyright law, which protects automatically without registration, and inventions and product appearance fall under patent and industrial design registration.
What Cannot Be Registered
Article 3 of the decree-law lists sixteen categories of sign that cannot be registered as a trademark or as part of one. Most rejections fall into three of them: signs with no distinctive character, signs identical or similar to an earlier mark for the same or related goods, and signs that mislead the public about origin.
- Marks with no distinctive character, or that are just the customary name or ordinary picture of the goods or services
- Anything breaching public morals or public order
- Public emblems, flags, military and honour emblems, decorations, coins, banknotes, and state or international organization symbols, or imitations of them
- Red Crescent and Red Cross symbols and imitations of them
- Signs identical or similar to religious symbols
- Geographical names where use would confuse as to origin
- Another person’s name, nickname, picture, logo or surname, without their prior approval or their heirs’ approval
- Honorary or academic degree particulars the applicant cannot prove entitlement to
- Misleading marks, false origin claims, or marks containing someone else’s trade name
- Marks owned by persons with whom dealing is prohibited under UAE law
- Marks identical or similar to an earlier filed or registered mark for the same or related goods or services, where use would suggest a link or harm the earlier owner’s interests
- Marks whose registration would reduce the value of goods or services already distinguished by an earlier mark
- Copies, imitations, translations or transliterations of a well-known mark, whether for similar goods or, in defined circumstances, dissimilar ones
- Marks including terms such as Concession, Concessionaire, Registered, Registered Drawing or Copyright
- Three-dimensional marks consisting of a shape dictated by the nature of the goods or needed to achieve a technical result, with nothing distinctive added
Article 4 handles well-known marks separately and is stronger than most applicants expect. A well-known mark whose reputation has crossed borders cannot be registered by anyone else for identical or similar goods without the owner’s application or approval, and cannot be registered even for dissimilar goods where use would suggest a connection or harm the owner’s interests. Well-known status is judged on public awareness, promotion, length of registration, use, the number of countries involved, value and market impact.
Trademark Registration Fees in the UAE
The Ministry of Economy and Tourism charges AED 750 to file, AED 750 to publish, and AED 5,000 for final registration, a total of AED 6,500. Late payment of either of the last two attracts a monthly penalty with an annual cap.
| Stage | Fee | When it is due | Penalty for late payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application | AED 750 | On filing | Not applicable |
| Publication in the Trademark Bulletin | AED 750 | Within 30 days of receiving the acceptance decision | AED 100 per month, capped at AED 1,000 a year; a part month counts as a full month |
| Final registration | AED 5,000 | Within 30 days of the end of the objection period | AED 1,000 per month, capped at AED 10,000 a year; a part month counts as a full month |
| Total | AED 6,500 | Across the full process | – |
The late-payment penalties are the detail worth planning around. Both clocks start from an event you have to be watching for, not from a date you chose. If your filing agent changes, or the notification email lands in a mailbox nobody reads, the AED 5,000 stage can quietly accrue AED 1,000 a month while you assume the mark is registered.
The AED 5,000 is the real decision point
Because the largest fee falls last, after acceptance and after the objection window, you can abandon an application that has attracted a serious objection without having spent the bulk of the money. Around AED 1,500 is at risk before that point. Businesses filing a portfolio of speculative marks often use this deliberately: file broadly, see what survives publication, then pay the AED 5,000 only on the marks that matter.
The Registration Process Step by Step
Filing is online through the Ministry of Economy and Tourism website or smart app. The Ministry examines the application, issues a decision within 90 days, publishes accepted marks in the Trademark Bulletin twice a month, allows 30 days for objections, and issues the certificate within 30 days of the final fee.
Step 1: Search first, then file
Article 3(11) blocks registration of a mark identical or similar to one already filed or registered for the same or related goods or services. Searching the register before filing is not a formality; it is the difference between AED 750 spent usefully and AED 750 spent on a predictable rejection.
Step 2: Choose your classes
Article 8 lets one application cover one or more categories of goods or services. It also contains a rule that decides many disputes: goods or services are not similar merely because they sit in the same class, and not different merely because they sit in different classes. Classification is administrative. Similarity is a question of fact about the market.
Step 3: Examination and the 90-day decision
The Ministry may impose restrictions or amendments to distinguish your mark from an earlier one. Article 12(2) gives you 30 days from notification to respond, and failing to respond within that window means you are treated as having waived the application. Article 12(3) then requires the Ministry to decide within 90 days of filing. A refusal must be reasoned and notified in writing, and electronic notification is expressly permitted.
Step 4: Publication and the objection window
Accepted marks are published in the official Trademark Bulletin, which the Ministry issues twice a month, at the applicant’s expense. Any interested party then has 30 days from the date of publication to file an objection under Article 15(2). Note the practical asymmetry: a grievance or appeal against a decision rejecting an objection does not stop the registration going ahead, unless the competent court orders a stay.
Step 5: Certificate, backdated to your filing date
Article 17(1) is the provision to remember. Registration takes effect from the date the application was filed, not from the date the certificate is issued. Everything that happens during examination, publication and objection is happening on top of a priority date you already hold.
Documents and Who Can File
An applicant inside the UAE filing in a personal name does not need a licence. A company or establishment must submit its commercial licence. An applicant based outside the UAE must file through a registered trademark agent with a legal, notarized power of attorney.
| Applicant | What is required |
|---|---|
| Individual inside the UAE, filing in a personal name | No licence required |
| Company or establishment | Commercial licence |
| Anyone filing through an agent | Compulsory legal power of attorney, agent registered in the trademark register |
| Owner based outside the UAE | Must file through a registered agent, with a legal and notarized power of attorney |
The foreign-applicant rule is the one to plan for. If your brand is owned by an offshore holding company, you cannot file directly, and you will need a notarized and legalized power of attorney in place before the filing date matters to you. If you are setting up in the UAE anyway, holding the mark through the local entity avoids the agent requirement, though it changes where the asset sits. That decision belongs in the same conversation as your choice of company structure when setting up in Dubai.
Priority from a foreign filing
Article 11 lets you claim priority from an earlier application filed in a Paris Convention member state, a multilateral agreement to which the UAE or a GCC state is party, or a bilateral agreement to which the UAE is party. You must attach a copy of the earlier application and an acknowledgment of its date, number and country within six months of filing the UAE application, or the priority claim is forfeited.
If You Are Refused, or Someone Objects
Article 13 sets a two-stage challenge route: a grievance to the Trademarks Grievances Committee within 30 days of notification, then an appeal to the competent court within 30 days of the Committee’s decision. You cannot go straight to court.
The Committee is not an internal ministry panel. Article 14 requires it to be chaired by a specialized judge nominated by the Minister of Justice, sitting with two specialists chosen by the Minister of Economy and Tourism. Article 13(3) is the hard rule: a lawsuit to cancel a Ministry decision rejecting or suspending registration “shall not be accepted unless a grievance has been previously filed against it.”
The same grievance and appeal route applies to decisions rejecting an objection, refusing a modification under Article 19, refusing an amendment to the register under Article 20, and cancelling or refusing to cancel a mark under Article 24.
Protection, Renewal and the Six-Month Grace Window
Protection runs for ten years from the filing date and is renewable for further ten-year periods. Renewal within the tenth year costs AED 6,500. Renewal in the six months after expiry costs AED 7,250. Miss both windows and Article 22(2) treats the mark as cancelled from the date protection expired.
| When you renew | Fee | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| During the tenth year of the protection period | AED 6,500 | Renewed for a further ten years |
| Within six months after protection ends | AED 7,250 | Renewed for a further ten years |
| After that window | – | Mark cancelled from the expiry date; re-registration by others barred for three years under Article 27 |
Two things make renewal easier than first registration. Article 21(2) states the mark is renewed without further examination, and the renewal cannot be objected to. The Ministry publishes an average service delivery time of one working day for renewal, against 45 working days for a new registration. The required documents shrink to the commercial licence, the power of attorney if an agent is filing, and the existing registration certificate.
The three-year bar after cancellation
Article 27 stops a lapsed or cancelled mark from being immediately picked up by a competitor. Once removed from the register it cannot be re-registered for the benefit of others for the same or similar goods or services until three years have passed, unless a court judgment ordering the cancellation set a shorter period. That is a real cooling-off protection, and it is also a reason not to assume a mark you can no longer find on the register is free to take.
Losing a Mark: Non-Use and Ownership Challenges
Any interested party can ask the Ministry to cancel a mark that has not been used for five consecutive years, unless emergency circumstances prevented use. Ownership itself becomes largely unchallengeable after five years of continuous registration and use, unless the registrant acted in bad faith.
Article 18(1) creates the ownership shield: whoever registers a mark is deemed its sole owner, and ownership may not be disputed once registration and use have been continuous for at least five years without an action being brought, unless bad faith is proven. Article 18(2) gives the mirror image to the genuine first user, who has five years from the date of registration to ask the Ministry to cancel a registration made in someone else’s name, unless they consented to that use expressly or impliedly.
Article 24(3) is the non-use provision, and it is the reason defensive registrations across every class are a weak strategy in the UAE. A class you never trade in is a class a competitor can attack after five years.
Registration also plugs your mark into a second enforcement system. Goods bearing your mark without permission are counterfeit goods under the commercial fraud law, which lets the authorities seize, recall and destroy them without the rights holder having to sue. See our guide to commercial fraud in the UAE.
What Registration Actually Lets You Do
A registered mark gives you three enforcement routes: a customs hold at the border, a provisional court order to seize infringing goods, and a criminal complaint carrying imprisonment and fines up to AED 1,000,000.
Customs
Article 45 lets customs authorities order goods not to be cleared, on their own initiative or at the right holder’s request, by reasoned decision, for a maximum of 20 days. The right holder may inspect the held goods. Article 46 excludes two things from that power: small non-commercial quantities in a traveller’s personal baggage or small parcels, and goods put on the market in the exporting country by the trademark owner or with their consent. That second exclusion is a parallel-import carve-out, and it means a customs hold is not a tool against genuine grey-market goods. If you import commercially, this sits alongside the ordinary import and export licensing requirements in the UAE.
Provisional court measures
Article 47 allows the right holder to obtain an order from the Magistrate of Summary Justice for a detailed description of the infringement, seizure of the goods, materials, tools and proceeds, a bar on the goods entering commercial channels including after customs clearance, and preservation of evidence. The Magistrate must decide within 10 days of filing, may issue the order without summoning the other side where delay risks irreparable harm or loss of evidence, and may require a financial or bank guarantee against abuse. The defendant then has 15 days to file a grievance with the president of the court.
The deadline that trips up right holders is Article 47(7): you must file the substantive lawsuit within 20 days of the provisional order, or the order is cancelled at the defendant’s request. A seizure without a follow-through claim unwinds itself.
Criminal penalties
| Conduct | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Forging or counterfeiting a registered mark; knowingly using a forged mark commercially; using another’s mark in bad faith; possessing tools to counterfeit; knowingly importing or exporting counterfeit-marked goods | Imprisonment and a fine of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000, or either (Art. 49) |
| Knowingly selling, offering or holding for sale goods or services bearing a forged or unlawfully used mark; falsely implying an unregistered mark is registered | Imprisonment up to one year and a fine of AED 50,000 to AED 200,000, or either (Art. 50) |
| Repeat offence | Up to twice the maximum penalty; the court may order closure of the facility and confiscation of the tools, machines and materials (Art. 51) |
Separately, Article 48 preserves an ordinary civil claim for compensation before the civil court under the general rules, and Article 52 lets the court publish the conviction at the convict’s expense. Consumers hit by counterfeits have their own route under the consumer protection rules on counterfeit goods, which runs in parallel to the trademark owner’s remedies. Where the conduct is clearly criminal, the practical first move is often a criminal complaint through the police and public prosecution rather than a civil filing.
Licensing, Assignment and Mortgage
A trademark can be sold, licensed, inherited, gifted or mortgaged. None of those transfers binds third parties until it is entered in the register and announced.
Article 28(3) makes registration the point at which a transfer, mortgage or attachment becomes enforceable against third parties. Article 29(1) adds a default that surprises sellers: transferring ownership of a commercial shop or project carries with it the trademarks registered in the owner’s name where they are closely connected to that business, unless the parties agree otherwise. If you are selling a business and intend to keep the brand, say so in the contract.
On licensing, Article 30(2) caps a licence at the remaining protection period, and Article 31 requires the licence contract to be in writing and documented while expressly not requiring it to be recorded in the register. Either party can ask for it to be recorded, and either can apply to delete the entry on proof that the licence has expired or terminated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to register a trademark in the UAE?
AED 6,500 in total, paid in three stages: AED 750 on application, AED 750 for publication in the Trademark Bulletin once the mark is accepted, and AED 5,000 for final registration after the objection period closes. Those are the Ministry of Economy and Tourism’s published service fees and do not include an agent’s professional charges, which are separate and unregulated.
How long does UAE trademark registration take?
The Ministry publishes an average delivery time of 45 working days to study and decide on an application, and Article 12(3) of Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 requires a decision within 90 days of filing. After acceptance you pay the publication fee, the mark appears in the Bulletin issued twice a month, a 30-day objection window runs, and the certificate is issued within 30 days of the final fee.
How long does a UAE trademark last?
Ten years from the date the application was filed, renewable for further ten-year periods. Renewal during the tenth year costs AED 6,500; renewal within six months after expiry costs AED 7,250. Renewal is granted without further examination and cannot be objected to.
Can I register a trademark in the UAE without a trade licence?
Yes, if you are inside the country and filing in your personal name. The Ministry’s published requirements state that no licence is needed in that case. A company or establishment must submit its commercial licence, and any owner based outside the UAE must file through a registered trademark agent with a legal, notarized power of attorney.
Is a trade name the same as a trademark in the UAE?
No. A trade name is reserved with the economic department and identifies your registered entity. A trademark is registered with the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and gives you the Article 17(2) right to stop others using an identical or similar sign on related goods or services. Holding one does not give you the other, and the two can end up in different hands.
What happens if someone objects to my trademark?
Any interested party may object within 30 days of publication in the Bulletin. The Ministry decides the objection under procedures set in the Implementing Regulation. If the Ministry rejects an objection, the objector can file a grievance and then appeal, but that challenge does not halt registration unless the competent court stays the decision.
Can a competitor cancel my trademark for non-use?
Yes. Article 24(3) lets any interested party ask the Ministry to cancel a mark that has not been used for five consecutive years, unless emergency circumstances prevented use. This is why filing defensively across classes you never trade in offers weaker protection in the UAE than owners often assume.
Does a UAE trademark protect me across the GCC?
No. Registration with the Ministry of Economy and Tourism covers the UAE. What crosses borders is the priority right in Article 11, which lets you claim the date of an earlier application filed in a Paris Convention member state or under an agreement the UAE or a GCC state is party to, provided you supply the paperwork within six months of the UAE filing.
Can I register a sound or a smell as a trademark in the UAE?
The decree-law expressly states that a distinctive sound or smell may be considered a trademark, alongside three-dimensional and hologram marks. Registration still requires the sign to be distinctive and to clear the Article 3 exclusions, and non-traditional marks carry a heavier evidential burden in practice than a word or logo.
What is the penalty for selling counterfeit goods in the UAE?
Article 50 imposes imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of AED 50,000 to AED 200,000, or either, on anyone who knowingly sells, offers for sale or holds for sale goods bearing a forged or unlawfully used mark. Forging or counterfeiting the mark itself, or importing or exporting such goods knowingly, carries imprisonment and a fine of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000 under Article 49, doubled on repeat offences.
Official Sources
- The Official Platform of the UAE Government – Intellectual property, including the text of Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 on Trademarks
- Ministry of Economy and Tourism – Trademark Registration service card, fees and procedure
- Ministry of Economy and Tourism – Renew Registration of Trademark service card
- Ministry of Economy and Tourism – Cabinet Resolution No. 20 of 2020 on Ministry service fees
- Ministry of Economy and Tourism – Trademarks Department
Information is current as of August 2026. Every article number and legal rule above was read from the official English text of Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 on Trademarks as published by the UAE Government portal, and every fee, deadline and document requirement was read from the Ministry of Economy and Tourism’s own published service cards for trademark registration and renewal. Three limitations are stated rather than smoothed over. The Ministry’s service cards were read through archived copies because moet.gov.ae was not reachable from our network at the time of writing, so confirm the current fee on the Ministry’s live service page before you pay. The Implementing Regulation of the decree-law governs several procedural details that the decree-law delegates to it, including the exact renewal filing window and the objection procedure, and its full text was not retrievable, so those points are given as the decree-law and the service cards express them. And the AED 6,500 total is the fee set out on the registration service card; the decree-law permits one application to cover more than one class, but the card does not state how the fee behaves across multiple classes, so confirm that with the Ministry if you are filing broadly. The government portal notes that the Arabic text of the legislation prevails in case of conflict. This is general information, not legal advice.
