KUWAIT Law and Practice Contributed by: Sam Habbas, Luis Cunha, Hisham Al-Quraan and Mustafa Sayed, ASAR – Al Ruwayeh & Partners
ting the offence. Where necessary, the order issued for taking such measures may require the appointment of an expert and other court officers to assist in its execution. Unlike under Law No 13 of 2015 (the “TM Law” – see 7.2 Trade Marks ) and Law No 75 of 2019 (the ”Copyright Law” – see 7.4 Copyright ), which specifically allow a rights or title holder to seek an order from a Kuwait court for the enforce - ment of precautionary measures prior to the fil - ing of a substantive infringement action (and on an ex parte basis when necessary) to prevent patent infringements and violations, the Patent Law grants such a right only after the substan - tive claim for patent infringement or violation of the Patent Law has been filed. The 1970 Patent Cooperation Treaty (as amend - ed) (PCT), an international patent law treaty, is also of significance, and was ratified by the State of Kuwait on 9 September 2016. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an inven - tion simultaneously in a number of countries by filing an “international” patent application; such an application may be filed by anyone who is a national or resident of a contracting state with the national patent office of the contracting state or, at the applicant’s option, with the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva. However, it should be noted that the PCT application does not itself result in the automatic granting of a patent, and the granting of a patent is at the discretion of each national or regional authority. In other words, a PCT application establishes a filing date in all contracting states but must be followed up on by entering into national (or regional) efforts to obtain one or more patent registrations. 7.2 Trade Marks Trade mark protection is regulated under the TM Law, which is largely based on a treaty between
the various GCC states. The TM Law defines “trade marks” as ”anything which takes a dis - tinct form or style in the form of names, words, signatures, letters, symbols, numbers, titles, stamps, drawings, graphs, inscription or com - bination of same, or any signs or group of signs if used or intended to be used to distinguish such products or services of an organisation or entity relevant to such products or services from products or services of other entities or to indi - cate the performance of a service or to control or check such products or services” (informal translation). Trade marks, service marks, logos and trade names may be registered in Kuwait under the TM Law in accordance with international clas - sification standards, except those relating to certain prohibited items (ie, alcohol and pork products) and certain restricted activities (such as gambling). These registrations are valid for up to ten years from submission of the application for registration, and may be renewed for similar periods. When foreign marks are to be used in Kuwait, the owner thereof is typically recom - mended to consider registering them locally in accordance with the TM Law as this affords the mark owner more protection than when the marks have not been registered. In the case of an infringement of a registered trade mark, the remedies available to the trade mark owner under the TM Law include: • filing a criminal action (see Articles 2, 3 and 4 of the TM Law); • seeking injunctive relief, which may take the form of confiscating infringing items, impounding the tools used in infringing the mark and/or the destruction of unlawful marks and property (see Article 40 of the TM Law);
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