How to Register a Trademark in the UAE in 2026

The UAE awards trademark rights on a first-to-file basis

Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 replaced the 1992 trademarks regime when it came into force in January 2022. Together with Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2022 and a series of fee and procedural amendments since, it sets the rules every brand owner needs to know before filing.

• The UAE grants trademark rights to the first applicant who files, not the first user, so unregistered brands carry almost no protection.
• Each application covers a single class under the Nice classification, and a typical filing runs three to six months from submission to registration certificate.
• UAE-registered owners can extend protection into more than 130 jurisdictions through a single Madrid Protocol application filed via the Ministry as Office of Origin.
• A registered mark that sits unused for five consecutive years can be cancelled by any third party that files a non-use action.

What can be registered

Article 2 of Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 defines a trademark broadly. Words, names, signatures, letters, numerals, drawings, symbols, titles, hallmarks, seals, packaging shapes, sound files and three-dimensional configurations all qualify, as does any combination of those elements. The 2021 law widened the field beyond the 1992 categories, recognising sound marks, colour marks and three-dimensional marks for the first time.

Article 3 sets out the absolute grounds for refusal. The Ministry will reject any mark that:

• lacks distinctive character or consists only of a generic name for the relevant goods
• offends public morals or order
• imitates national flags, military emblems, official seals or symbols of international organisations
• contains religious symbols
• could mislead the public on origin, nature or quality
• is identical or confusingly similar to a well-known mark owned by another party

Well-known marks receive enhanced protection even when they are not registered in the UAE. The owner of a foreign well-known mark can apply to cancel a UAE registration of the same or similar mark within five years of registration.

The registration process step by step

The Ministry of Economy and Tourism runs the entire process through its electronic services portal. There is no filing in any individual emirate. One application covers all seven.

Step 1: pre-filing clearance

A search of the Ministry's trademark database identifies prior registrations and pending applications in the same class for similar marks. This step is not mandatory, but skipping it is the most common reason an application fails at examination.

Step 2: filing the application

The application requires a clear representation of the mark, the applicant's identification documents, the goods or services classification under the Nice system, and a power of attorney where a registered trademark agent files on the applicant's behalf. The power of attorney must be notarised and, for foreign applicants, legalised through the UAE consulate in the country of origin and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE.

Administrative Decision No. 2 of 2026 gave the Ministry discretion to grant monthly extensions to the standard 90-day window for submitting legalised power of attorney documents, with no additional fees. Before this change, missing the window meant restarting the application.

Step 3: examination

The Ministry's Trademark Office reviews the application against absolute grounds (Article 3) and relative grounds (conflicts with prior marks). The Decree-Law gives the Ministry up to 90 days to issue a decision. The October 2025 reform introduced a One Day TM Initiative for applicants who pay the expedited fee and meet the technical conditions for fast-track examination.

If the Ministry raises objections, the applicant has 30 days from notification to respond. Failure to respond is treated as withdrawal of the application.

Step 4: publication and opposition

Once the Ministry accepts the application, it publishes the mark in the Ministry's electronic bulletin. Third parties have 30 days from the publication date to file an opposition. The applicant pays the publication fee.

Step 5: registration

If no opposition arrives or if the opposition is dismissed, the applicant pays the final registration fee. The Ministry then issues the trademark registration certificate. Protection runs for 10 years from the filing date and renews indefinitely for further 10-year periods.

Costs and timing

Government fees changed under Cabinet Decision No. 112 of 2023 and were further restructured by the October 2025 reform. The standard government cost for filing, publication and registration of one mark in one class sits around AED 6,500, with additional fees for fast-track examination and for legal agent services. Members of the National Programme for SMEs receive a 50 per cent fee reduction. People of Determination are fully exempted.

The timeline a brand owner should plan around:

UAE national filing or Madrid Protocol designation

The UAE acceded to the Madrid Protocol in 2021 under Federal Law No. 67 of 2021, becoming the third GCC member of the system after Bahrain and Oman. A UAE-registered brand owner can now file a single international application through the Ministry as Office of Origin, designate any number of the Madrid Protocol's 115 member countries and pay one set of fees.

The choice between routes turns on where the brand needs protection and how soon.

Maintenance, renewal and the five-year non-use rule

A registration that does nothing more than sit on the register has two operational risks.

The first is renewal. A trademark expires 10 years from the filing date. The owner can renew within the six-month period before expiry. After expiry, a six-month grace period applies, with a further three-month extension available where the Ministry accepts the justification. Failure to renew within those windows means the registration is cancelled and a third party can file for the same mark on a clean slate.

The second is the use requirement. Article 24 of Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 allows any interested party to apply to cancel a registration that has not been used for five consecutive years, unless the owner can prove exceptional circumstances. The Ministry will not cancel registrations on its own initiative for non-use, but a competitor that wants the same mark in the same class will move first when the five-year clock runs out.

A brand owner who registers and then changes the form of the mark, the goods, or the services should record the variation through the Ministry. Significant changes to the mark itself usually require a fresh application.

What registration actually protects against

A UAE registration gives the owner a statutory right to prevent unauthorised use of the mark, or any confusingly similar mark, on the goods and services covered by the registration. Combined with Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2023 on Combatting Commercial Fraud, the framework gives owners three enforcement routes:

• civil action through the UAE commercial courts for an injunction and damages
• a complaint to the Ministry of Economy and Tourism for an inspection and administrative seizure
• a criminal complaint where the conduct meets the threshold for counterfeiting or commercial fraud

Penalties under the 2023 commercial fraud law include imprisonment of up to two years and fines from AED 5,000 to AED 1 million for the import, export, sale or storage of counterfeit goods. The court may order the goods destroyed at the infringer's cost.

Customs recordal is a separate process. A brand owner that records its registered marks with Dubai Customs and the Federal Customs Authority gives those authorities a basis to detain suspected counterfeit shipments at the border before they reach the market.

Common mistakes that cost owners the registration

Five recurring errors account for most of the problems brand owners encounter:

The application is filed in a personal name when the brand is used by a corporate entity. Transferring a registration between an individual and a company is a recordal exercise, not a free one, and it creates exposure during the gap.

The applicant relies on a single class when the actual commercial use spans several. The UAE allows only one class per application. Filing in fewer classes than the business uses leaves the unprotected classes open to a third-party filing.

The legalised power of attorney does not arrive within the 90-day window. Administrative Decision No. 2 of 2026 now allows monthly extensions, but each extension requires a fresh request to the Trademark Office before the previous period expires.

The owner does not monitor publications in the Ministry bulletin. A competitor's similar mark that publishes without an opposition becomes a registered mark with priority over later filings.

The five-year non-use clock runs out unnoticed. A registration kept for defensive purposes only, with no genuine commercial use in the UAE, sits exposed to a third-party cancellation action from year five onwards.

How should brand owners approach trademark registration in the UAE in 2026?

The cost of registering a UAE trademark is small relative to the cost of losing the brand. A pre-filing clearance search and a properly drafted single-class application close the gap that most brand owners discover only when a third party files first. The procedural windows, in particular the 90-day legalisation window and the 30-day opposition window, run on hard deadlines that the Ministry treats as binding regardless of the commercial value at stake.

For brand owners whose UAE business now extends into franchising, licensing, or international expansion, the trademark register is the document that anchors every downstream commercial agreement. A licence agreement over an unregistered mark, or a franchise structure built on a mark held in the wrong name, fails on the first day a dispute arises.

Brand owners who need to file a UAE application, defend an opposition, pursue a cancellation, or extend protection through the Madrid Protocol should obtain advice on the strategy before the next deadline runs.

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