How to Register a Trademark in the UAE (2026): Process, Fees and Duration

Trademark protection in the UAE runs for ten years from the date you file, not from the day the certificate arrives, and it is renewable for similar periods for as long as you keep filing.¹ That single mechanic explains most of what follows. Trademark registration in the UAE is federal: the competent authority is the Ministry of Economy, and the framework is Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 on Trademarks, in force since 2 January 2022, which repealed the 1992 trademark law it replaced.²

The sequence is time-boxed. The Ministry must decide on a registration application within 90 days of filing.³ An accepted mark is published in the Ministry's Bulletin before it is registered, at the applicant's expense, and any interested party then has 30 days from publication to object.⁴ Once granted, registration takes effect from the filing date, so the protection reaches back to the day the file opened.⁵

What follows is who registers what, how the sequence actually runs, what the cost depends on, how long the protection lasts, and the deadlines that quietly end otherwise valid rights.

Who registers a trademark in the UAE, and under which law?

One authority, one federal law. The Ministry of Economy is the ministry named in the Decree-Law, and it maintains the Register.² The instrument is Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021, issued on 20 September 2021 and in force from 2 January 2022, which abrogated Federal Law No. 37 of 1992 and its amendments.²

That date matters more than it looks. Guidance written before 2022, and there is a lot of it still circulating, describes a law that no longer applies. When you read a procedure online, check which statute it is describing before you act on it.

The registration is national, not local. A business in Dubai does not file with an emirate office and hope it travels; it files into the same federal Register as a business anywhere else in the country. If you want the wider picture of how intellectual property law in the UAE fits together across trademarks, copyright and patents, that sits alongside this piece rather than inside it.

What can you register, and how do classes work?

A trademark may be registered for one or more categories by filing an application for one of the categories of goods or services, in the manner specified by the Implementing Regulation.⁶ Classes are not paperwork. They are the boundary of what you can later enforce.

The Decree-Law and its Implementing Regulation define what qualifies as a mark and what is excluded from registration.² The commercial exercise is narrower: decide what you are protecting, and where.

Two gaps recur. The first is registering the word but not the visual identity, or the reverse, and assuming the entry covers both. The second is filing only for the class you sell in today, then launching into an adjacent one next year and finding the ground already taken. Neither is expensive to avoid at filing. Both are expensive to fix afterwards.

How does trademark registration in the UAE work, step by step?

The path is fixed, and each stage carries its own clock.

1. 1

   Check, then file

   Establish what is already on the Register for your goods or services, then file the application with the Ministry of Economy for the relevant class or classes.

2. 2

   Examination and decision

   The Ministry decides on the application within 90 days of filing, provided it meets the conditions in the Decree-Law and its Implementing Regulation.

3. 3

   Respond to restrictions

   If the Ministry sets restrictions or amendments to identify the mark and prevent confusion, you have 30 days from notification to respond. Silence is treated as waiving the application.

4. 4

   Publication in the Bulletin

   An accepted mark is published in the Ministry Bulletin before registration, at the applicant expense, and the Bulletin states the last date for filing an objection.

5. 5

   Objection window

   Any interested party may file an objection with the Ministry within 30 days from the date of publication.

6. 6

   Registration and certificate

   Registration takes effect from the date the application was filed, and the owner receives a certificate with the registration data.

If the Ministry refuses or suspends the registration, the route is equally time-boxed. The applicant, the owner or their representative may file a grievance with the Grievance Committee within 30 days of being notified, and may then appeal the Committee's decision before the competent court within a further 30 days of notification.⁷

What does it cost to register a trademark in the UAE?

Start with the honest answer: the law does not set the price. Article 57 leaves the fees to a decision of the Council of Ministers, which means the schedule can move without the statute moving with it.⁸ Any figure you find on a third-party site is only as current as that site's last update.

Three variables drive what you actually pay. The number of classes, because each one is a separate scope of protection.⁶ Publication in the Ministry's Bulletin, which happens before registration and is expressly at the applicant's expense.⁴ And renewal, which returns every ten years for as long as you keep the mark alive.¹

On timing, the statutory anchors are the 90-day decision window and the 30-day objection window that follows publication.³⁴ Plan around those two, plus your own turnaround on anything the Ministry asks for, which is capped at 30 days before the application is treated as abandoned.³

How long does trademark protection last, and what happens at renewal?

Ten years, counted from the filing date, renewable for similar periods on application to the Ministry within the periods and conditions set by the Implementing Regulation.¹ Renewal is granted without a fresh examination and is published in the Ministry's Bulletin, so a renewal is an administrative step, not a second contest.¹

Miss it and the mechanic is unforgiving. If the renewal deadline lapses with no application, the mark is considered cancelled from the Register as of the date the protection period expired.¹ The gap opens backwards, not from the day you notice.

Two further clocks decide whether a registration holds. Ownership cannot be contested once registration and use have been continuous for at least five years with no action lodged, unless the registrant is shown to have acted in bad faith.⁹ In the other direction, any interested party may ask the Ministry to cancel a mark unused for five consecutive years, save for emergency circumstances.⁹ A mark removed from the Register is closed to others for the same or similar goods or services for three years, unless a court judgment sets a shorter period.¹⁰

Do you need a lawyer to register a trademark in Dubai?

Not to file. Nothing in the framework makes representation compulsory for a straightforward single-class application, and treating the filing itself as the hard part usually gets the emphasis wrong.

The value sits at four points, and each of them is a deadline or a scope decision.

• A response the Ministry is waiting for. Restrictions or amendments come with a 30-day reply window, and the application is deemed waived if it passes.³
• An objection after publication. Any interested party can file one within 30 days, and answering it is a different exercise from filing.⁴
• A licence. The duration of a licence to use a trademark cannot exceed the protection period of the mark itself, so the two calendars have to be drafted together.¹¹
• A priority claim. Under the Paris Convention route, the claim has to be filed within six months of the earlier application, together with a copy of it and the acknowledgment of its date, number and country, or the right to claim priority is forfeited.¹²

This is where coordinated access to the right specialist earns its place. LawyersDubai coordinates access to independently licensed UAE professionals across intellectual property law in the UAE, from a single-class filing to a portfolio held across several classes.

What does registration let you do if someone copies your brand?

This is the part that answers whether registration is worth it. The Decree-Law puts criminal weight behind a registered mark, and none of it is available to a mark that was never registered.

Forgery or counterfeiting of a registered trademark carries imprisonment and a fine of no less than AED 100,000 and no more than AED 1,000,000, or either penalty, without prejudice to any more severe penalty in another law.¹³ Selling or offering goods bearing a forged or imitated mark, or presenting an unregistered mark as if it were registered, carries imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of AED 50,000 to AED 200,000, or either penalty.¹³

There is also a border lever. Customs authorities may order, by reasoned decision and either on their own initiative or at the right holder's request, that suspected infringing goods are not cleared, for a maximum of 20 days.¹⁴ Twenty days is a hold, not a remedy. What you do inside that window decides whether it was worth triggering.

The mistakes that quietly cost owners their mark

None of these is exotic. Each is avoidable with a calendar and a decision made early, and each costs more than the planning it would have taken.

• Letting the 30-day reply window pass. No response to the Ministry's restrictions or amendments, and the application is treated as waived.³
• Missing the renewal. The cancellation reaches back to the expiry of protection, and the three-year bar on re-registration by others is a delay, not a safety net.¹¹⁰
• Registering, then not using. Five consecutive years of non-use puts the mark within reach of any interested party.⁹
• Filing too narrowly. A class you skipped is a class you cannot enforce in.⁶
• Losing the six-month priority window. Filed late, the priority right is forfeited outright.¹²
• Treating the certificate as enforcement. The certificate establishes the right. Acting on it, whether through the criminal route or a customs hold, is a separate exercise on a separate clock.¹³¹⁴

Where LawyersDubai fits

The framework is public and it is unusually legible. One authority, one federal law, and a small set of deadlines that decide almost everything: 90 days for the Ministry, 30 days for you, 30 days for anyone objecting, ten years before it all comes round again.

LawyersDubai is a law consultancy firm. It is a single, confidential point of contact that coordinates access to licensed UAE professionals for the filing itself, for the classes that define its scope, and for the legal advisory work a contested file or a licence needs. It does not provide legal advice, and it is not a law firm. It connects you to the professional who does.

The owners who keep their marks are the ones who treat the calendar as part of the brand. The earlier a specialist sees the scope, the less of it has to be rebuilt later.