The Kuwaiti Trademark Office has introduced substantial procedural changes pursuant to a Ministerial Decree published on December 27, 2015, including:
- A legalized Certificate of Incorporation or an Extract from the Commercial Register must now be submitted in support of a trademark application, and may be used for subsequent filings. Therefore, within three months of the filing date, applicants must submit: (i) a legalized Power of attorney, (ii) the legalized Certificate of Incorporation or an Extract from the Commercial Register, and (iii) a certified and legalized copy of the priority document, if priority is claimed.
- The opposition period has been modified to 60 days from the publication date in the Official Gazette, instead of 30 days from third publication in the Gazette.
- Counterstatements in response to an opposition may be submitted within 60 days from receipt of notification, as opposed to the present 30 days.
- The deadline to appeal the Registrar’s decision in an opposition has been extended to 30 days from notification from the present 10 days.