United Arab Emirates

Firm overview

For more than a century, the world’s top companies have looked to Gowling WLG to maximise and protect their treasured intangible assets, at home and abroad. As the global economy grows ever more knowledge-driven, clients continue to count on our broad experience to help them navigate an increasingly perilous intellectual property (IP) landscape.

Home to more than 200 IP practitioners in jurisdictions around the world, Gowling WLG is a leader in IP law, with significant strength in prosecution, enforcement & litigation and transactional work across all industry sectors.

IP solutions — wherever you need them

Gowling WLG provides top IP practices in Canada, the UK and throughout Europe, as well as across an arc of challenging jurisdictions that include China, and the Middle East. Our exclusive association with JurisAsia in Singapore — along with a robust network of established relationships with leading IP practitioners worldwide — further ensures you have access to the very best advice, wherever business takes you.

Full lifecycle approach

Every step on the path to market presents different challenges for you and your brands. Gowling WLG works with you to overcome those challenges by protecting and enforcing your IP assets and helping you maximise their value. From initial drafting and registration to complex enforcement matters, through to the management and monetisation of large international portfolios, our team is equipped to assist you during the entire lifecycle of your IP assets. 

Market leading IP expertise

Gowling WLG offers expertise in all aspects of IP around the world - with core specialisms in trademarks, brands and designs, patents, IP litigation and advertising, and product regulatory advice. This strength in global capability, combined with our collaborative approach, is why many of the world’s top businesses choose us as their trusted IP adviser, and have done so for more than 125 years.

We manage a vast number of trademark and patent files, and protect and enhance our clients’ trademark and patent assets in more than 100 countries through our prosecution services in Canada and China, as well as through our global network of associate relationships. 

Our team has expertise on contentious and non-contentious IP services across a range of industries, and many of our professionals hold specialist expertise in science, engineering and technology. This unique combination of expertise enables us to better understand your business and help you realise the full value of your IP.

Year after year, the firm’s IP professionals and practice groups are recognised by some of the world’s most respected legal publications, receiving top rankings in global and country-based publications.

Comprehensive service offering

Outside of our IP service offering, Gowling WLG is equipped to advise clients in virtually every area of law relevant to business. We see this as one of our core strengths and a key differentiator from other IP service providers, whether they are full-service firms or boutiques.

Clients who work with us can be assured of a holistic approach to their business goals and legal advice that focuses on innovation, results and value.

Last updated 22nd December 2020

Firm overview

The BSA Intellectual Property practice is a full-service, leading IP team in the UAE and wider Middle East region. The practice is differentiated from others in the region by its commitment to providing a highly personable and client focused service that has earnt the trust of many loyal clients. The IP team benefits from a culturally and gender diverse team with legal educations and experience coming from both civil and common law jurisdictions, in addition to a wealth of cross-jurisdictional experience. The benefits of such also permeate in the language capabilities of the team, as the majority draft straight into Arabic which ensures a high degree of technical accuracy that is often lost in translation.

BSA has rights of audience in every country where we have an office. This separates BSA from the leading law firms in the region who must employ local advocates to work on their behalf. BSA are therefore better placed to have control over their matters and can keep costs to a minimum for clients.

Under dynamic partner guidance, the team is particularly active in relation to the prosecution and enforcement of intellectual property rights, which has included an array of complex copyright infringement cases over the course of the past year. The team has seen a marked growth in the number of counterfeit investigations it is managing in not only the Middle East but globally, particularly online, and has developed a successful investigation arm for this as a result. The team delivered many large prosecution projects throughout 2020, especially for its key clients such as MBC, that consistently provide both contentious and non-contentious matters for the practice. In preparation for the UAE’s entry to the Madrid system, the practice focused energy into developing the patent practice of the firm and have had exciting progress with important clients such as Knobbe Martens, who introduce many high-profile companies to the firm.

As part of his wide-ranging Intellectual Property practice, Head of Department Munir Suboh represents a suite of clients across media, professional services firms, automotive and industrial entities, pharmaceuticals and many more. He leads the team, while the associates ensure we have a broad base of expertise. Our growing client base, which now includes sectors such as fashion and consumer goods, are testament to our overall team strengths.

Firm overview

AGIP was established in 1972 and has grown to become the largest IP service agent in the Arab world and one of the most respected worldwide, with fully owned offices in all the Arab countries, in addition to India, Turkey, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tanzania, Uzbekistan and Malaysia. IP matters in the remaining countries are handled through the Continent Offices located at our Regional Office in Jordan.

AGIP is in full coordination with sister company, TAG Legal, with reference to any needed action to protect and enforce Intellectual Property Rights (trademarks, patents, designs, domain names, etc..) as well as other corporate legal services related to business transactions via legal actions, mediation and arbitration. TAG Legal is a globally recognized law firm which consists of more than 400 lawyers and professionals in its network.

To this end, AGIP has worked in close coordination with Arab governments and multilateral organizations on introducing an efficient IP system and helped some of these government to draft their own IP laws that has brought up significant changes to the region.

An internal training department focused its attention on the encouragement of AGIP employees to develop their capabilities and functional potentials, which in turn affect the ability of achieving the goals of the company in high efficiency. AGIP has also created its own IP courses which enhanced its employees’ capabilities to meet clients’ needs.

We believe that our track record in the IP field is exceptional as Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) provides its services based on our proven skills, our ability to provide a timely response to instructions and inquiries and the competitiveness of our rates. We successfully complete thousands of assignments each year on behalf of some of the world’s largest and most prestigious companies. Our consistent growth rate is also indicative of our high quality and client satisfaction

AGIP ensures high quality deliverables that exactly address clients’ IP needs and expectations through efficient IP project management and continuous quality control supported by multi-national and bilingual professionals with diversified expertise with local, regional and international companies from various industries with advanced academic degrees.

Our Team’s Experience

• 1200 qualified expert officers.
• Dedicated and certified professionals with advanced academic degrees.
• Multi-national and bilingual professionals with diversified expertise with local, regional and international companies from various industries. 

Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) adheres to high ethical and professional standards, and employs qualified in-house team of professionals as well as state-of-the-art technology, so as to provide a comprehensive range of IP services tailored to meet our clients’ needs, including:

• Filing Trademark, Patent, Copyright, Design, and Domain Names Registration
• IP-Renewals 
• Intellectual Property Published Registration (lPPR)
• IP Portfolio Management 
• IP Valuation
• Patent Drafting 
• IP Consulting
• Infringement and Counterfeiting Actions* 
• Cancellation, Opposition and Appeal Actions*
• Licensing and Franchising Agreements 
• Technology Agreements
• Trademark Watch Service*
• IP News Agency Publication of Cautionary and Patent Working
• Brand Protection

We also would like to state below AGIP valuable services to its clients through specialized departments:

Watch Service: A free watch service to protect against infringing similar/exact TM registrations provided to AGIP clients which includes monitoring their trademarks that have been registered through AGIP in the Arab counties.

Intellectual Property Published Registrations (IPPR): A proprietary database that includes over 1 million published registrations in the Arab countries. This includes records of renewals, assignments and all other actions as of the filing date of each trademark.

AGIP Conflict Department: Where an office of AGIP is found to handle two confusingly similar but bona fide applications, the firm maintains a commitment to the earlier application and must withdraw from the second assignment. Offices may not knowingly file a trademark or domain name application that conflicts with a trademark that we handle, or that we believe is an imitation of another mark. In case of an opposition involving two marks that AGIP handles, the firm will not represent either party.

Published Patents Center – Patent IPPR Department: The Published Patents Center at Abu Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) is a unique database which includes comprehensive and detailed information about patents and patent applications published in the Arab countries, including bibliographic data, abstracts, claims, description, patent families, legal status, etc.

Centralized Contact Department: At AGIP Regional office in Jordan; we have a centralized International Department which is established for clients who prefer to consolidate their work with one contact office to simplify the working procedures and unify the response to your inquiries. Your representative at such a department will take care of all your work and contact all AGIP and TAG-legal offices on your behalf to ensure that your instructions are properly handled. The Central Clients Department at AGIP has been established to provide our focus clients (who prefer to keep our department as the one contact person) with the highest quality services to meet their expectations and to provide you with one -contact person for all you IP requirements.

Last updated 4th November 2018

Firm overview

United Trademark & Patent Services, is an IP specialized law firm, that was founded in the year 1949 with a vision to cater to the Intellectual Property Law needs of our clients. With more than 7 decades of IP experience, the law firm comprises lawyers and technical analysts specializing in Intellectual Property (IP) Rights and related issues.
Excellence in our work has won the firm a leading position in this specialized field of law and we take pride in having more than 100 of Fortune 500 companies on our firm’s portfolio.

International reach
Enforcing IP rights across borders might be a little difficult, in countries where we do not have our own offices. Since UTPS has its own branch in the Middle East, South Asia, and African countries, there is not much difficulty to coordinate with our colleagues in those countries, in order to initiate actions against the infringers, based on local practices and customs.
The time difference also plays a role which sometimes requires over-the-clock diligence, so that we are compatible with the working hours of the other countries.
This enables us to simultaneously comply with clients’ wide-ranging requests, from the acquisition of strong exclusive rights to the effective enforcement and management of IP portfolios.

Our strength as a full-service provider
UTPS provides clients with tailor-made services for protecting IP rights, from filing patent, design, and trademark registrations, to enforcing IP rights through litigation or negotiations.
While the firm expertly handles portfolios for multinational companies, the same commitment is also provided to start-up companies and individual clients leading the way in new technologies and markets. It has also developed a strong agency network of associates across the region, as well as around the world. UTPS established presence throughout the region allows us to seamlessly deliver cross-jurisdictional advice to clients.

Ability to resolve IP disputes and High-quality services in related areas
Our team comprises highly experienced IP litigation lawyers and patent/trademark attorneys with a track record of successful cases, including infringement litigation and invalidation proceedings against decisions.

• Due diligence and pre-filing clearance relating to Intellectual Property rights
• Copyright, Design, Patent, and Trademark filing and prosecution
• Patent landscaping and freedom to operate analysis (worldwide)
• Patent specification translation to Arabic (which is a pre-requisite to file a GCC or national application)
• Licensing, franchising, distributorship issues
• Acquisition, divestiture, and technology
• Intellectual Property portfolio management
• Company formation
• Arbitration and dispute resolution
• Infringement and enforcement actions and litigation relating to Intellectual Property (IP) including those arising from commercial IP agreements
• Domain name disputes
• Anti-counterfeiting, administrative actions, raids, and seizures of counterfeit products