Getting Your Industrial Design Registered In Bahrain

18th May, 2022 - 11:53 am Categories: Design 0 Comments

With the fastest growing economy in the Arab World, Bahrain is making its global presence in the world. It has the freest economy in the Middle East and as per reports in Index of Economic Freedom published by The Wall Street Journal ranked Bahrain as the 12^th freest economy in the world.

^{[Picture Credit: istockphoto]}

In the last decade, City of London’s global Financial Centres Index ranked Bahrain as the world’s fastest growing financial centre. With the boom in demand of oil, Bahrain’s banking and financial sector has been greatly benefitted from the same with more impetus on the Islamic Banking. Petroleum production and processing is Bahrain’s most exported product, accounting for 60% of export receipts, 70% of government revenues, and 11% of GDP. Aluminium production is the second-most exported product, followed by finance and construction materials.

Moreover, the communication and transport facilities being one of the best in the world, Bahrain is home to number of multinational firms and construction proceeds on several major industrial projects. Also, with the major influx and shift in the geopolitical economic condition, Bahrain entered into the US as a part of Free Trade Agreement reducing certain trade barriers thereby giving more room to the economy.

Industrial Design Registration in Bahrain

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. The protection period for an industrial drawing and design is ten years from date of filing in the Kingdom. If the proprietor files a renewal application during the last year of the period, the protection shall be renewed for a further five years. The proprietor may also file a renewal application during the six months after the expiry date. The industrial drawing and design application is submitted to the Patent Office by the applicant if he is a national or resident in the Kingdom of Bahrain; foreign applicants who are not resident in the ​Kingdom must apply through the IP Registration Office or a law firm in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Filing for Industrial Design

As per the law of Industrial Design, any natural person or legal entity who is a citizen of the Kingdom of Bahrain or a foreigner of a country member in the World Trade Organization or the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial property, or that applies reciprocity to the Kingdom, or if the person has real and effective industrial or commercial establishments in the territories of such countries, shall have the right to file an application for the registration of an industrial design in conformity with the provisions of this Law.

The protection period of an industrial design shall be for a period of ten years as from the date of filing the registration application in the Kingdom. The protection shall be extended for a further period of five years, when the right holder applies for renewal within the last year of the protection period. The owner may, however, apply for renewal of the registration, within three months after the expiry of the prescribed protection period.

As per the law, the application for the registration of an industrial design shall be filed and an application may include up to 50 industrial designs, provided that they all constitute a “unity”.

Documents required for filing

Documents which are required for the filing must contains:

• the applicant’s details;
• two sets of drawings;
• the legal representative’s information or a copy of the power of attorney;
• priority details (if any);
• the payment of the filing fee.

Examination and Grant

The Industrial Design only undergoes formal examination post which it is registered for the period of 10 years. Industrial designs in Bahrain are subject to the payment of annual maintenance fees that are due from the second year of the publication date and must be paid on the anniversary of the publication.

Official Fees (in Bahraini Dinar)

Author: Saransh Chaturvedi (Advocate, LLM (IIT Kharagpur) – an associate at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney,  in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email saransh@iiprd.com.