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	Qatar		Info-Prod Country Guide
JUDICIARY   BUSINESS FORMS & STRUCTURES   CURRENCY & BANKING   INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY TAXATION INVESTMENT & TRADE   PUBLIC PROCURMENT   ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Intellectual Property General Qatar is not a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) nor does it belong to the Paris Convention for Protection of Intellectual Property. Within Qatar, therefore, owners of trade marks and copyrights and holders of patents are dependent on Qatar's own national laws and regulations for protection. Patents and Designs There is no patent or design law in effect in Qatar, however, caveats and cautionary notices may be published in both the Arabic and English language press and appropriate periodicals. While the publication of a cautionary notice does not affect a registration of the invention or design, it is intended to put the public on notice of the interests of its owner and to prevent potential infringement. Trademarks Law No. 3 of 1978, Administrative Decision No. 47 of 1986, and Ministerial Decree No. 17 of 1987 govern the Qatari trademark regime. Names of distinctive features, signatures, words, letters, numbers, designs, pictures, symbols, stamps, seals, vignettes and any other sign or combination of signs having a disjunctive character may be registered as a mark. Marks without distinctive features, expressions, designs and signs of immoral character or contrary to public policy, portraits or emblems of individuals without their permission and marks likely to deceive the public are among the things that cannot be registered as a mark. With the exception of the alcoholic goods of Class 33, Qatar adopted all 42 classes of the international classification system. Application and registered marks are published in the Trademark Gazette. Opposition may be filed within four months from the date of publication. Upon registration, the mark is protected for ten years, and the protection is renewable for similar periods. The rights confer exclusive ownership of the mark. Lack of use of a mark in Qatar for five consecutive years is a ground for challenge. Violations of the law may give rise to criminal penalties. Copyright The Law for the Protection of Copyright No. 25 of 1995 became effective on 23 January 1996. Under this law, authors of literary, artistic, and scientific works may benefit from protection regardless of the work's value, kind, purpose or media. Protection covers works expressed in writing, sound, drawing, image or motion, creative titles and computer software. Also protected by the law are those who obtain the permission of the original author to translate the work or those who summarize, modify, explain or comment on the work to produce a new form of the work without infringing on the rights of the original authors. The protection extends to the rights of the author and the right of those who translate a work into a foreign language for three years from the date of publication. Protection is granted to Qatari authors whose works are published inside and outside the country, the works of non-Qatari authors published in Qatar for the first time and the works of authors of any other foreign country that treats Qatari authors on a reciprocal basis. A literary work may be licensed for publication, display or circulation upon meeting the following legal stipulations: (1) The work must be accompanied with a certificate of origin showing the author's name or the name of the person who surrenders the right of usage; (2) The work must be accompanied with a permit from the supplier or owner for display or circulation, showing the geographic areas where the display or circulation, showing the geographic areas where the display and circulation is licensed; (3) The work must be accompanied with a supplier's certificate showing that the publishing rights are covered whether through paying the charges of putting the work to use by the public or by making copies of the work for distribution. Once granted copyright protection, the author is entitled to attribute the work to himself and to apply his name to all the copies produced from it whenever the work is put to public use, except when the work is mentioned accidentally in a radio or in a television presentation of current events. This right is inalienable and is not abolished with the lapse of time. The author also has the right to decide on publishing the work, recording or displaying it and to determine the relevant terms. The author has the right to use his work, on condition that the right was not surrendered to another person. Yet, it is forbidden to use any work through transferring it to the public in Qatar except by a written, authenticated permission from the author or the author's representative or successor in the event of death. The author has a vested right to modify or to translate a work into another language; heirs, too, can exercise this right. Only the author has the right to publish his letters and to transfer the financial rights which the work entails, according to the provisions of the law, to another. The author has the right to defend against any violation of his rights and has the right to prevent any elimination, addition, change or deformation of the work. Even following the death of the author, the rights provided for in the law are all or partly alienable, whether through inheritance or by law. The law stipulates that in cases of joint production of works where it becomes impossible to determine the exact share of each one in the joint work, all participants will be considered equal partners in its ownership, unless otherwise agreed. Previous Chapter Contents Menu Next Chapter

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