Gulf Intellectual Property specializes in the practice of intellectual property by evaluating, protecting, licensing and litigating in the areas of copyright, design, trademarks, patents and utility models.

Copyright
Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly.

Design
A significant amount of work may be involved in producing a design, and it is therefore important wherever possible to provide protection for this design work. Design protection is very important in preventing competitors from using the same or a closely similar design.
A design can be referred as the appearance of the whole or part of a product resulting from features such as the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product or its ornamentation. Such products can include graphic symbols, screen displays, logos, typefaces and packaging. Accordingly the scope of what is meant by “a design” is very broad.

Patents
Patents protect inventions by giving the owner of the patent the right to stop anyone from making or using the invention without the owners permission. This right, granted by the Patent Office, is enforceable in a court of law. A patent can last for up to 20 years. In other words, a patent is a right to stop competition for the invention for a limited period. This right to stop competition exists only in the country for which a patent has been granted.

Trade Marks
Trade marks are signs which are used to distinguish the goods or services of one business from those of another. In this context, the word “sign” is used very broadly. Although most trade marks are words or logos or combinations of the two, other forms such as three- dimensional shapes, combinations of colours and even sounds may be, and indeed are, used as trade marks.

Trade marks can be considered as essentially indications of the origin of a particular product or service. The formulation or make-up of many products sold under a particular trade mark may well vary as time goes by, but the trade mark will remain unchanged. Trade marks are a most important means of protecting the reputation and goodwill that a business has built up. The reputation and image of most products and services is a result of a whole range of different factors such as quality, customer satisfaction, availability, advertising, competition and so on. But, whatever has gone into the creation of the reputation or image it is invariably encapsulated in the mind of the customer, or end-user, by the trade mark.

Utility models
Utility models are registered rights which confer exclusive protection upon technical inventions. As in the case of patent protection, the technical inventions to be protected must possess novelty and involve an inventive step (frequently, the level of inventiveness required is not as great as in the case of patents).

Unlike patents, utility models are granted without a prior search to establish novelty and inventive step. They are, therefore, protection rights which can be obtained more swiftly and cheaply, but which also offer less legal certainty. Utility model protection at present exists only at national level.

Select the countries below to know more about the laws: