All you need to know for a trademark Registration-filing in Qatar

A smooth trademark registration generally passes through three phases:

Filing – you file the trademark at the TM department.

Publication – if the mark is accepted and not rejected, it will be published for 120 days (opposition period).

Registration – After the opposition/publication period ends, you can pay the final registration fees and receive your trademark certificate.

After filing a trademark at the trademark office, and settling official fees relating to filing the trademark examiners at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Qatar to examine trademark applications, the examination process takes place on two levels:

Formal examinations of trademarks in Qatar - are examinations that take into account regulatory, formal, or documentary aspects of the trademark filing requirements. In other words, an examiner will look at, whether all the required documents for filing have been submitted, whether these documents have been properly authenticated (legalized or locally legalized), whether the fees have been settled, whether the applicant is entitled to register a trademark locally, whether the classes designated are available locally, and whether priority documents are included or not.

Substantive examinations of trademarks in Qatar- are conducted by examiners at the trademark office within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Qatar.

The examination criteria are both on absolute grounds and relative grounds:

Absolute grounds for trademark refusals in Qatar are:

• Trademarks that are devoid of any distinctive character.
• Trademarks exclusively consist of signs regularly used in trade, to refer to a type, kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, or other characteristics relating to the goods or service the trademark is registered on.
• Trademarks which exclusively consist of signs or indications that are used in the normal course of the trade.
• Trademarks that are contrary to public policy.
• Trademarks that are contrary to public morals and ethics.
• Trademarks that deceive the public, as to the nature, quality, or source of the goods or services.
• Trademarks which include public emblems, flags, and other symbols relating to the state, Arab, or international organizations, or one of their institutions, or a foreign state unless so authorized by it, as well as any imitation of such emblems, flags, or symbols.
• Trademarks include symbols of the Red Crescent or Red Cross and other similar imitating symbols.
• Trademarks that are similar to or resemble symbols of a purely religious character.
• Trademarks are geographical names whose protection or use create confusion as to the origin or source of the goods, the products, or the services.
• Trademarks are essentially the name, surname, picture, or emblem of a third party unless prior approval is provided.
• Trademarks which are indications of honorary distinctions that the applicant for registration cannot prove.

Relative grounds for trademark refusals - assess whether a trademark application filed in Qatar may confuse due to the similarity with a previously registered or famous trademark locally.

The power of attorney can be submitted within 180 days of filing a trademark in Qatar. You can file your trademark in Qatar without a legalized power of attorney, and submit it later on within 180 days calculated from the filing date.