Industrial designs to receive five-year copyright protection in Oman

Muscat: Oman is planning to pay significant attention to all aspects of intellectual property through drafting the required regulations and laws to ensure industrial development has the required impact and safeguard intellectual property rights.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) pointed out that the period of industrial design protection is five years starting from the date the application of the submission to the ministry after paying fees.
According to Nidaa Yaqub Al Tamimi, a patent inspection specialist at MOCI, the dues can be paid during a period of six months after submitting the application. Failure to do so will see the industrial design registration cancelled. “The fees have been reduced to OMR100 for school, college and university students and researchers and to OMR500 for SMEs,” she said. “The fees for the Industrial Design Certificates are reduced to OMR50 for college and university students and researchers and OMR250 for SMEs.”
Granting protection
“Industrial design rights are regional, as they are limited to the place for which they have been granted,” said Nidaa Al Tamimi. “Internationally, industrial design protection application can be submitted according to the Hague Convention that Oman has joined on December 4, 2008. To have the application accepted, the design should be new and must not have been published or used anywhere else before.”
Rights and obligations
“The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is keen to promote and spread the culture of protecting patent rights among local communities and all competent authorities. The industrial designs are a sub-field of intellectual property, as these designs have significance in distinguishing the different products, commodities and goods,” she explained. “They contribute to the success of the product in markets.
Industrial designs
The industrial design is the exterior appearance of a product or any formation of lines and colours, or the 3D formation that provides the product with a special appearance that can be seen and recognised easily.
Protection
Providing protection to the industrial designs means that the owner shall have all rights to have his registered industrial design dedicated exclusively to the product assigned. Accordingly, the competitors of the industrial design owner shall have no right in copying the same design for their products without a written consent from the part of the original owner of the design.
Products subject to protection
“The industrial design protection rights can be implemented to a varied number of handcrafts, including wrapping, boxes, furniture, home appliances and accessories, lighting, jewellery, appliances and textiles,” she added.