KUWAIT Law and Practice Contributed by: Sam Habbas, Luis Cunha, Hisham Al-Quraan and Mustafa Sayed, ASAR – Al Ruwayeh & Partners
• if the infringing party manages to register the infringing mark, filing a case to de-register the trade mark of the infringing party (see Articles 22 to 24 of the TM Law); • seeking damages (see Article 41 (1) and (2) of the TM Law); and • filing an application with the Customs Depart - ment to prevent the entry of counterfeit goods (see Article 38 of the TM Law). Of significance, a complainant should file a sub - stantive action with the relevant court within 20 days of the granting of a precautionary order/ injunctive relief. 7.3 Industrial Design Industrial designs are also protected in Kuwait (but not separately defined, strictly speaking) under Law No 4 of 1962 (the Patent, Designs and Industrial Models Law), Article 35 of which provides that “any arrangement of lines or any type of figure, whether coloured or uncoloured, designed for use in industrial production by a mechanical, manual or chemical process shall be considered a design or industrial model” (informal translation). Although industrial designs are regulated similarly to patents, they are sub - ject to certain different rules. For example: • the initial protection period for industrial designs is ten years from the application date; • industrial designs may be renewed for one further period of five years; and • industrial models are registered with the PTO on the Register of Designs and Industrial Models. 7.4 Copyright The Copyright Law governs copyright issues and defines a “work” as ”any creative literary, artistic or scientific work of whatever kind, expression, importance or purpose” (informal translation),
and provides for the protection thereof. Article 23 of the Copyright Law provides that copyright protections will typically endure for the lifetime of the author and for 50 years after the author’s death; additional considerations may apply, depending on the nature of the work and the author involved (joint works, juristic entities, etc). Certain limited exceptions from the copyright protection are provided for (copying short por - tions for educational purposes, etc). A party seeking to protect its copyright does not need to register the copyright locally in order for it to be granted protection under the Copyright Law; however, it may wish to apply and file a request with the Kuwait National Library (KNL) to deposit works sought to be protected in order to enhance the ability to evidence the author’s entitlement to copyright protection. The KNL is authorised to accept applications for the deposit of works from authors or creators, their descendants or their official representatives. Only one classifica - tion of work will be allowed for each application. If the material is accepted for deposit, the KNL will classify the material and issue a certificate indicating the serial number, the date of deposit and an international classification. Under Article 35 of the Copyright Law, a com - plainant may petition a court to grant interim relief (an order restricting the publication, pres - entation, performance or copying of the work for a certain period of time, seizure of the revenue generated from the exploitation of the work, etc) when there is a violation of any rights stipulated under the Copyright Law. Significantly, a com - plainant should file a substantive action with the relevant court within 15 days of the granting of the interim relief.
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