To protect a trademark such as a brand name or logo, registration at the national or international IP offices is required.Trademarks can be registered with the UAE Ministry of Economy. After submission of the trademark to the IP office, payment of corresponding fees, and a successful examination, the trademark gets registered. In the UAE, the Federal Decree Law on Trademarks provides protection for names, words, signatures, letters, symbols, numbers, addresses, seals, drawings, pictures, engravings, packaging, graphic elements, forms, colours, signs, and other distinctive aspects.

A trademark makes it possible to identify your company, its products, and services. To register a trademark, two criteria have to be fulfilled:

• The trademark needs to be used in commerce, i.e. it must be tied and in use for identifying a firm, product, or service.

• The trademark must be distinctive, i.e. easy to differentiate from everything else that is "out there." If your intended trademark can be easily mistaken for another one already in use by somebody else for similar goods, you will not be able to claim it. 

The creation of a new trademark requires some creative and well-thought-out consideration. Creators should pay attention to the following steps before registering a trademark. The described steps do not follow a strict chronological order, and can be performed either one after the other or in parallel: 

As a trademark is the representative of a company and/or company’s products, it should be aligned with relevant performing aspects. Collect your creative ideas and prove your potential trademark concepts by taking the following questions into account:

• What are the company's values and vision? What value propositions are offered by the company and/or company's products? Is this mirrored by the trademark?

• What impressions and associations should the trademark raise for the customer? What emotions should be linked to the trademark, e.g. confidence, reliability? What are the customer's preferences?

• Does the trademark correspond to the reputation of the company and/or company's products?

• Does the trademark imply attractiveness of the company and/or company's products for potential customers?

• How can the trademark make the company's and/or company's products unique selling proposition (USP) visible  

Before registration, a trademark clearance search is recommended. Check the availability of the trademark in the relevant Nice Classification for products and services (TM class search) by using trademark search databases. If your planned or already created word, phrase, design, etc. is already protected by an existing trademark in the same product and service classes you want to get protection for, you will most likely not be able to register your desired trademark. 

In today's fast-paced business world, companies should be able to react quickly and align to many changes. The trademark should have agile characteristics and less limitations. On this stage, criteria like trademark type (word, design, combination, etc.), territorial coverage (e.g. UAE only or international focus), and language (e.g. Arabic and/or English) should be assessed. Make sure that the selected criteria are covered in your trademark clearance search.

When your first ideas are collected, a strategy is defined, and a first trademark clearance search is performed, you can start your trademark design activities and get ready for registration. Considering the points already raised in the section "Idea collection" above, you should be aware of the following: Different branches and markets need different designs. A bank will choose another trademark design than a toys company. The trademark should be designed to attract the customer in the desired branch and/or market (shape, colour, etc.). It should also fit the product which it represents and can but must not necessarily follow an overarching corporate design guideline (corporate identity).