UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Law and Practice Contributed by: Yasser Omar and Laryssa Perkins, Hadef & Partners LLC
• Sustainability and Environmental Impact: What are the environmental implications of the FDI? Does it accord with the UAE’s commitment to sustainabil - ity? • Economic Diversification Goals: Does the FDI sup - port the economic diversification strategies of the UAE? Growth sectors in this diversification, which are of particular importance and appeal, are tech - nology, renewable energy, healthcare, and finance. 11.2 Intellectual Property Protections The UAE places a significant emphasis on the protec - tion, enforcement, and commercialisation of IP rights. A series of updates to the various intellectual property laws in the UAE took place in 2021. These included: • Law 11 of 2021 in Relation to the Protection of Industrial Property Rights; • Decree-Law 36 of 2021 in Relation to the Protec - tion of Trade Marks; and • Decree-Law 38 of 2021 in Relation to the Protec - tion of Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights. The Ministry, in which the various IP offices in the UAE are located, has taken consistent steps to ensure the effective application of these laws and set up the accompanying jurisdictional framework to facilitate these changes, with the focus on increased efficiency and the application of best-in-class principles to the application of these laws and user interactions with the IP offices. These laws are aligned with international best prac - tices and also with giving effect to the operation of international conventions and treaties to which the UAE is a signatory. These include: • the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intel - lectual Property Rights (TRIPS); • the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property; • the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works; and • the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The integration of national IP strategies with the eco - nomic agenda of the UAE has seen a number of initia - tives, the most notable of which was in February 2024
with the announcement of 11 interconnected initia - tives centralised around four core themes: • promoting comprehensive protection of intellectual property rights and fostering a culture of innova - tion; • reducing the infringement of intellectual property rights holders; • facilitating the resolution of disputes; and • enhancing IP-related services offered by the Ministry, including through the use of AI and user- friendly interfaces. However, it is important to note specific factors in the following areas. • Compulsory Licensing: Provisions for compulsory licensing (for example, in relation to a national emergency) exist across the IP legislative frame - work but, in practice, these have rarely been utilised. • AI Works: The UAE has, for a number of years, uti - lised AI across a number of sectors and, in October 2024, implemented the UAE’s official AI Policy. The UAE AI Policy was jointly developed by the Office of the Assistant Foreign Minister for Advanced Sci - ence and Technology and the Office of the Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications. It contains six core principles: (f) security (as with the rest of the world, the spe - cific parameters around the IP rights subsisting in AI-generated works remain to be settled). • Secondary Political Authorisation: In industry sectors where there are national security factors to consider, restrictions may be imposed on how certain IP rights can be held or enforced. 11.3 Data Protection and Privacy Considerations There are three primary data protection laws in the UAE. They are as follows. (a) advancement; (b) co-operation; (c) community; (d) ethics; (e) sustainability; and
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