IP and E-Commerce: Your basic check-list for the UAE

Your e-commerce website can play a big part in the success of your business. If you run your website from the UAE or target the UAE market, here are some UAE-specific intellectual property considerations that may be relevant to you.

• Carefully select your domain name. Because infringing trademark rights is a criminal offense in the UAE (as is copyright infringement), prudent companies conduct a trademark search before registering domain names.
• Register the core IP rights in your website to fight copycats. The UAE is a civil law jurisdiction and the tort of passing off, which can be relied upon for unregistered rights in common law countries, is not available. Although not mandatory, registration of copyright is available and may assist with enforcement.
• Put in place a strategy to register your trademarks. Carefully consider your trademark registration strategy, taking into account such matters as the high registration fees and the possibility of registering the brand in Arabic to help mitigate the risk of a competitor registering a translation or a transliteration of the relevant brand and using it for their e-commerce business.
• Choose which rights you want to own, and make sure these are duly transferred to you under UAE law. Do not assume that you own the rights in a software or web design that was specially developed for you. Whether your web developer is your employee, a contractor or a freelance web designer, the copyrights in their work will not be transferred to you unless these are duly assigned to you. For UAE law considerations, we would recommend seeking a contractual assignment beforehand and then confirming the assignment after the work is completed. In the meantime, seek a broad license to secure your rights until the assignment is perfected.
• Choose which rights you need to use (as opposed to own) and make sure you obtain a sufficiently broad license for such use. Owning vs. using IP is likely to have budget implications for you. Always consider whether your license is broad enough for you to be able to run and update, or ask another web developer to update, your website without paying additional fees or seeking additional approvals. You may also wish to consider preventing the licensing of the elements used on your website to a competitor.
• Seek additional approvals and warranties when using third party IP rights or depicting individuals in a photograph or video used on your website. Content and privacy of individuals is strictly regulated in the UAE and related violations may involve criminal penalties.

A variety of other legal considerationsmay also be relevant, including in relationto data protection, VAT and licensing.For example, in March, the NationalMedia Council established a licensingand compliance framework for onlineactivities, including advertising activities forcommercial purposes.