UAE Trademark Office: Your Comprehensive Guide

The UAE Trademark Office is not a separate agency: it is the Trademarks Department within the Intellectual Property Sector of the Ministry of Economy & Tourism (MoET), the federal body that administers Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021. It keeps a single national register that covers all seven emirates, including free zones. There is no Dubai or Abu Dhabi trademark office with its own register.

What the Trademark Office does

• Examines applications for absolute grounds (distinctiveness, public order, emblems) and relative grounds (conflict with earlier marks).
• Publishes accepted applications, renewals, assignments and cancellations in the electronic Trademark Bulletin, twice a month.
• Decides oppositions filed within the 30-day window, after hearing both parties.
• Registers marks and issues electronic certificates; records renewals, assignments, licences, changes of name and address, and voluntary cancellations.
• Registers trademark agents – only agents on its register may file on behalf of others.
• Receives infringement complaints and coordinates with the Departments of Economic Development, customs and police on enforcement.

The Grievance Committee

Decisions of the Trademark Office (refusals, opposition rulings) can be challenged before the Trademarks Grievance Committee at MoET (fee AED 5,000), and its decisions before the federal courts.

How applicants deal with the office

Everything is done through the MoET e-services portal – applications, payments, correspondence, certificates. Office actions and decisions arrive electronically with deadlines counted from the notification date. Applicants based outside the UAE communicate only through a registered agent. Guide to the MoET portal and services →

Locations and contact

MoET's headquarters are in Abu Dhabi with a main office in Dubai. Trademark matters are handled online; the ministry's unified call centre and the portal's helpdesk answer procedural questions. For anything that requires argument – an office action, an opposition, a grievance – applicants use an agent or lawyer.

Trademark Office vs. other bodies

Body	Role
MoET Trademark Office	Federal trademark register, examination, publication, registration, oppositions
Departments of Economic Development (DED / ADDED)	Trade names on business licences; market inspections for counterfeits
Federal Customs Authority / local customs	Border seizures of goods infringing recorded marks
Federal courts	Infringement litigation, appeals from the Grievance Committee

Related

• How to register a trademark in the UAE – step by step
• UAE Trademark Law explained
• Trademark infringement complaints
• Our registered-agent service — we are on the Trademark Office's agent register and deal with it daily.