Title: The unfair competition lawsuit for protecting the unregistered trademark which is accompanying a sound under the UAE legislation

Authors: Ramzi Madi; Mohammad Almistarehi

Addresses: Faculty of Law, Al Ain University for Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Al Al-Bayt University, Al-Mafraq, Jordan ' Ministry of Defense, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: Sound mark as a type of unconventional trademark is becoming more accepted and registered around the world. The UAE Trademark Law No. (37) of 1992 and its amendments requires registration of any type of trademarks to be protected. However, due to the lack of guidelines for protecting and registering trademark which is accompanying a sound, this raises the question regarding the infringements taking place on such unregistered trademarks. Should they be left without any protection as their holders failed to register them? The aim of this paper is to find out the position of the UAE Trademark Law regarding the unregistered trademark which is accompanying a sound. Authors focus on case law as it was found, when referring to UAE judicial rulings, that they approved protection for unregistered trademarks. Many judgments were based on the general principles of civil liability stipulated in the Civil Transactions Law or unfair competition. However, this article will tackle only the unfair competition lawsuit.

Keywords: unfair competition lawsuit; unregistered trademark; sound mark; UAE legislation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2020.103898

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2020 Vol.19 No.1, pp.42 - 58

Received: 09 Jan 2019
Accepted: 16 Feb 2019
Published online: 02 Dec 2019 *

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