Kuwait issued Ministerial Decree No. 4 of 2022, which stipulates the registration of trade names in Arabic.
The Decree, which was published in the Official Gazette in January 2022, states that a trade name may be registered in both Arabic and Latin characters. The Latin name should be synonymous with the Arabic translation or could be a direct transliteration of the name, however.
The aforementioned point is extremely salient to note since a trade name in a foreign language could have a plethora of translations in Arabic due to the robust vocabulary of the Arabic language. Consequently, a brand owner may consider many translation options depending on the intended meaning of the word in question.
Another complexity that arises with the transliteration of a foreign name into Arabic is the pronunciation of Arabic letters. For example, the same Arabic letter would be used to represent the letters “B” and “P,” since the Arabic alphabet does not have a corresponding letter that makes the sound “P.” It is therefore imperative to create a localized version of the trade name in Arabic, whether the word is translated or simply transliterated.