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

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 60 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 Kuwait to examine trademark applications, the examination process takes place on two levels:

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

Absolute grounds for trademark refusals in Kuwait 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 are indications of honorary distinctions to which the applicant for registration cannot prove.

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

A trademark is valid for 10 years from the filing date.