The government of Saudi Arabia announced its approval of the unified GCC trademark law which was passed on December 10, 2006 during the 27th summit of the GCC Supreme Council. This unified law has also been ratified recently in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The law will only be effective once it is approved by all GCC member states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) and the related implementing regulations are drafted and issued by the GCC Trade Cooperation Committee (made up of the Trade Ministers of the member states). The main purpose of the GCC trademark law is to replace the local trademark laws of each of the six GCC member states thereby promulgating unified regulations for trademark protection in all member states. However, the law does not offer a unified filing system as is the case with the GCC patent law. Trademark applications will continue to be filed separately in each of the GCC member states for protection.
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