Getting your Industrial Design Registration in Oman

Oman, officially known as the Sultanate of Oman, is a major country in the Western Asia sharing its land borders with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Oman has marked itself in having a strong geopolitical impact in the region being the member of United Nations, Arab League, Gulf Co-operation Council, Organisation of Islamic Co-operation. Not only with this, Oman has a strong economy owing to its tourism, trading and agricultural produce where it has been categorized as a high-income economy. With the huge dependency of oil exports, mineral fuels have accounted for 82.2% of total produce exports. Tourism is the fastest growing industry in Oman.

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With the socio-economic structure being hyper-centralized rentier welfare state, 80% of the nationals are employers in the private sector. Moreover, the free trade agreement with the United States has eliminated tariff barriers on all consumer and industrial products, and also provided strong protections for foreign businesses investing in Oman. In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), total investments in 2017 exceeded US$24billion. The highest share of FDI went to the oil and gas sector, which represented around US$13billion (54.2 percent), followed by financial intermediation, which represented US$3.66billion (15.3 percent). FDI is dominated by the United Kingdom with an estimated value of US$11.56billion (48 percent), followed by the UAE USD 2.6billion (10.8 percent), followed by Kuwait USD 1.1billion (4.6 percent).

Industrial Design in Oman

Industrial drawing and design consist of the ornamental or aesthetic aspects of an article, and can include three-dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two-dimensional features, such as pattern, lines, or colour. Royal Decree 39/2000 regulates industrial drawings and patterns. In order to be protected, a drawing or pattern must be registered in the trade drawings and patterns register at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Oman. The person who created the drawing or pattern is then deemed to be the owner, unless another party can prove this not to be the case.

The design must be original and, again, must conform to Oman’s standards of decency, in order to enjoy protection. The protection of a registered drawing or pattern lasts for ten years from the date of submission of an application for its registration. Illegally copying the registered design is punishable by imprisonment or fine.

Filing requirements

For the industrial design registration, the following documents are required for the same:

• Summarized description of the design.
• Applicant info (name and address).
• Power of attorney (POA): Original should be notarized and legalized.
• Deed of assignment if the applicant is not the designer.
• A certified copy of the priority document in case claimed.
• Copy of the commercial certificate document is required.

Examination Process

While getting into examination, the following may not be registered as industrial designs: (a) an industrial design which lacks novelty or originality or which was disclosed to the public in any country of the world by way of publication, use or in any other manner prior to the filing date of the application or, if any, priority date of a registration application. (b) an industrial design that is contrary to public order or morality.

In case of refusal, the applicant shall have the right to appeal against the decision refusing registration. The appeal shall be filed with a committee to be established by decision of the Minister. The rules of procedure of the committee shall be fixed in the Regulations. The decision of the committee may be the subject of an appeal before the competent court within sixty days from the date of notification of the decision of the committee by registered mail.

Term of Protection

The term of protection afforded to industrial designs shall be ten years from the filing date of the application. Such term may be renewed for the same period of time, failure of which shall cause the registration to be cancelled by the competent authority of the Ministry. The application for renewal shall be filed within the last six months of the initial term. The registration and renewal fees shall be fixed in the Regulations. The registration and renewal decisions shall be published in the manner prescribed by the Regulations.

Penal Provisions

Any person who carries out any of the following acts shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years, a fine not exceeding two thousand rials Omani or both: (a) imitates an industrial design registered under this Law. (b) knowingly sells, offers for sale, imports or possesses with the intention to sell products embodying an industrial design registered in Oman. (c) illicitly affixes on products, advertisements, trademarks, containers or other object indications that may lead to believe that the object is a registered industrial design.

Author:  Saransh Chaturvedi (Advocate, LLM (IIT Kharagpur) – in case of any queries please write back us via email at support@ipandlegalfilings.com or at IP And Legal Filings.