UAE Law and Practice Contributed by: Alain Zahlan de Cayetti and Anna Sedova, De Cayetti Law
Finally, the UAE hosts and funds major international sporting events, often organised by ad hoc organis - ing committees, under the supervision of the relevant government authority and the international sport fed - eration. 5. Intellectual Property, Data and Data Protection 5.1 Trade Marks Trade marks in UAE are registered under Federal Decree-Law No 36 of 2021 on Trademarks. Appli - cations are filed with the UAE Ministry of Economy, which administers the national trade mark register. Registration is valid for ten years, renewable indefi - nitely for further ten-year periods. Trade marks reg - istration applications can be limited to the UAE &/or applied for protection in one or more Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. Under the UAE Trademark Law, several categories of marks cannot be registered, which are mostly com - mon. The advantages of registration are also common (eg, exclusive rights, enforcement tools and commer - cial licensing opportunities). Unlike some jurisdictions, the use of a trade mark is not required for registration in the UAE. However, if a registered mark is not used for five consecutive years, it may be subject to cancellation for non-use by inter - ested parties. Examples of trade marks include Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, UAE Pro League or Al Ain FC. 5.2 Copyright/Database Rights The UAE is a civil law jurisdiction and copyright arises primarily from statutory provisions. Copyright is rec - ognised and protected under the Federal Decree- Law No 38 of 2021 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights. The WIPO database confirms that the UAE is a member of treaties such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which ensures reciprocal protection of copyright between member states, and the WIPO Copyright Treaty. Copyright protection arises automatically upon crea - tion of an eligible work, provided that two main require -
ments are satisfied: originality and fixation (where the work is expressed in a tangible form). A sporting event is not protected as a copyright work, but some of its elements may be protected, such as broadcast footage, sport photography, digital and video content. Copyright protection in the UAE does not require registration, even if a voluntary registra - tion is available through the Ministry of Economy. The advantages of copyright in sports are common to all other categories. Article 20 provides that “The Author’s economic rights set forth in this Decree-Law shall be protected through his lifetime and (50) fifty years later, commencing from the first day of the cal - endar year following the death year.” The Federal Decree-Law No 38 of 2021 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights contains several exceptions and limitations which may act as defences to infringe - ment claims, such as personal use, educational use, news reporting and temporary technical copying. The UAE does not have a specifically dedicated data - base or registry for copyright. A sports-related data - base could contain, for example, match statistics, athletes’ performance data, competition results and creative arrangements (statistics, archives and digital performance analytics). For instance, photographs taken at the Dubai World Cup event were protected by copyright owned by the photographer or the media organisation. 5.3 Recognising Personality/Image Rights The UAE does recognise protection for image rights (NIL rights), but not as a standalone statutory “right of publicity”. Image rights are protected in the UAE by several laws including: • Federal Decree-Law No 45 of 2021 on the Protec - tion of Personal Data; • Federal Decree-Law No 38 of 2021 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights; • Federal Decree-Law No 31 of 2021 on the Crimes and Penalties Law; and • the Civil Transactions law. Under the Civil Transactions Law, a person’s image is considered part of their personal rights. Photographs
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