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Trademarks
The Commercial Law of Kuwait (1981) governs the
trademark laws of Kuwait. Kuwait follows the
international classification of trademarks with a few
exceptions. The Trademark Law does not protect
trademarks or service marks in classes 32 and 33
relating to alcoholic beverages and pork as these things
are considered anti-Islamic. A trademark registration is
valid for ten years from the date of filing the
application. The trademark registration is
renewable after every 10 years. 'Actual use' of the
trademark in Kuwait is not a pre -requisite for
registering a trademark in Kuwait but non-use for five
years or more consecutively or if there is no bonafide
use of the mark, then the trademark is liable to be
struck-off (Article 79).
Unauthorized use or infringements of the trademark are
offences punishable with either imprisonment or a fine
not exceeding KD 600 or both.
Copyright Law
The law applicable for Copyright in Kuwait is the
Intellectual Property Rights Law of 1999.
Protection of the copyright of the author of a foreign
language work, as well as the copyright of the
translator who translated that work to another foreign
language get terminated with respect to the translation
of the work into Arabic language wherein the author or
the translator has failed to exercise the said right
within a period of five years from the date of first
publication of the original or translated work. The term of copyright protection exists till the
lapse of 50 years from the death of the author and in
case of joint work, the term is calculated from the
death of the last surviving co-author.
The copyright law is applicable for both the nationals
and the foreigners. The said law is applicable for the
work of foreign authors:
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that are published for the first time in Kuwait;
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who are nationals of a Member State of the
International Organization of Intellectual Property
Rights Convention that are published for the
first time in any of the said countries;
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who are nationals of the countries which accord
reciprocity rights to the nationals of Kuwait
(Article 43).
Part 3 of the Code deals with Procedures and Penalties.
Any person who has committed copyright infringement is
liable to be punished either for one year imprisonment
or a fine not exceeding 500 KD or both.
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