News & Insights

What Is UK Trademark Registration and Why Does It Matter? UK trademark registration is the process of formally protecting a brand name, logo, slogan, or combined mark with the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) under the Trade Marks Act 1994. Once registered, the owner holds exclusive rights to use the mark for the goods and […]

Is now the right time to file your EU trade mark? The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has just recorded its busiest year since it was established in 1996, receiving 327,735 applications for European Union trade marks (EUTMs) and European Union designs (EUDs) in 2025. That is a 7.8% increase over 2024 and a […]

Generative AI has moved faster than the law meant to govern it. Most of the resulting litigation so far has focused on copyright who owns the training data, and whether scraping it was lawful. But a 2025 lawsuit is pulling a second, quieter body of law into the spotlight: trademark dilution. And for brand owners, […]

What the Law Protects  Without Registration Under the Trademarks Act 2019, a brand that has achieved significant recognition among the relevant Malaysian public can qualify as a “well-known mark”, even if it was never registered or actively traded locally. This reflects Malaysia’s obligations under the Paris Convention and TRIPS Agreement. A well-known mark owner can […]

The Kingdom of Bahrain has enacted Law No. (21) of 2026, formalizing the country’s accession to the Locarno Agreement, the treaty establishing the international classification system for industrial designs. The law was published in Official Gazette Issue No. 3885 on Monday, 25 May 2026, and, pursuant to Article 2, entered into force on the day […]

Algeria formally acceded to the Apostille Convention on 5 November 2025 and will officially implement it starting 9 July 2026. From that date, a single Apostille attestation will be able to fully replace consular legalization for documents circulating between Algeria and other Convention member states, streamlining the legalization process and reducing administrative burdens for applicants […]

The Syrian Directorate of Industrial and Commercial Property Protection has reportedly eliminated the requirement for applicants to submit a simple copy of the certificate of incorporation, business license, commercial register extract, or articles of incorporation when filing intellectual property applications. The change is reported to apply across all major IP categories administered by the Directorate  […]

Brand owners licensing trademarks to franchisees, distributors, or authorised users in Iraq should be aware of a practical divergence between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region: Trademark licenses can be recorded with the Trademark Office in Baghdad, but are not currently recorded before the Trademark Office in the Kurdistan Region. Quick Facts Issue Trademark license recordation […]

From 1 August 2026, Jersey is reported to become an independent designation under the Madrid System, introducing a significant change for brand owners seeking international trade mark protection. Until now, protection in Jersey was secured automatically through a United Kingdom designation. Going forward, applicants will need to designate Jersey separately and confirm their intention to […]

Sierra Leone’s Trade Mark Regulations 2024, published as Statutory Instrument No. 19 of 2024, are reported to have come into effect in January 2026. The Regulations sit beneath the Trade Marks Act 2014 and modernise the procedural framework for trademark applications, oppositions, renewals and recordals — introducing, for the first time, a detailed set of […]