News & insights

MENA: Live Updates of IP Offices in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic

September 22, 2020

As governments begin easing travel restrictions in the wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we are witnessing the reopening of several Intellectual Property Offices in the Middle East and North Africa region. With this update, we want to assure you that our main priority remains to ensure the safety and well-being of our people, families, clients, and the communities in which we live and work.

In order to ensure an uninterrupted service, you may send all your instructions, queries, and documents directly to your account managers and the people you are corresponding with at the offices concerned. We will docket all the instructions we receive from you, prepare all the required forms, and diarize all approaching deadlines in order to ensure proper follow-up and organization.

This article is being updated regularly. All new information is below.

Country	PTO Status	Deadlines	Submission of Original Documents & POAs	Last Updated
Afghanistan	Operational	All deadlines are automatically extended to the first working day	Scanned copies of documentation and simply signed POAs are accepted	May 29
Algeria	Operational	A grace period of one month will be granted once business is back to usual	PTO is operating/simply signed POAs are usually accepted	March 27
Bahrain	Operational	No extension announced yet	All documents are submitted online	March 26
Cyprus	Operational	If by any reason a deadline cannot be met, then a written application requesting an extension of time has to be filed	A scanned copy of the documents and simply signed POAs are usually accepted	March 27
Djibouti	Operational	All deadlines are automatically extended	Usual procedure – original documents should be available at the time of filing .A simply signed POA is usually required	June 1
Ethiopia	Operational	All deadlines have been extended to July 19, 2020	TMO will be flexible in accepting the soft copies of the same and later originals to follow	April 23
Egypt	Operational	The Patent Office is accepting examination, annuities, searches, Letters Patent, and certification fees	The Trademark and Patent Offices are accepting scanned documents and simply signed copies of POAs along with an email from the client or/attorney proving The difficulty of legalizing the required POAs. (Original documents should be submitted whenever possible)	June 10
Gaza	Operational	All deadlines are automatically extended to May 20, 2020	Extension of time is acceptable due to the current situation. Simply signed POAs are usually acceptable	April 21
Gulf Cooperation Council	Operational	All deadlines are automatically extended to the first working day	All documents are submitted online	April 29
Iraq	Partially Operating (Not accepting new filings or examining old applications until the curfew is lifted)	No extension announced yet	Documents can be submitted within 6 months from filing date	June 15
Iraq (Kurdish Region)	Operational	No extension announced yet	Documents can be submitted within 6 months from filing date	June 15
Jordan	Operational	All deadlines are automatically extended to the first working day	All documents should be submitted	May 6
Kuwait	Operational	All deadlines will be extended according to the closure period	All documents should be submitted once the PTO re-opens	June 30
Lebanon	Operational	No extension announced	Simply signed POAs are accepted. No official notification about the submission of original documents	August 28
Libya	Operational	All deadlines are suspended until first working day	Original documents can be submitted online or otherwise sent by courier	May 5
Morocco	Operational	All deadlines are suspended until further notice	Simply signed POAs are usually used. Recordal assignment and merger will be filed later on, because the related documents should be submitted at the PTO	March 31
Oman	Operational	The PTO announced that right holders must attend to the necessary action for all matters that were due on or after March 24, 2020 by October 8, 2020 at the latest	All documents should be submitted	September 22
Pakistan	Operational	No extension announced	All documents should be submitted	May 11
Qatar	Operational	No extension announced, however, the pace of processing transactions and delivery of official communications will be very slow. The issuance of all kinds of certificates is temporarily suspended	All original documents can be filed after the force majeure situation is over	May 6
Saudi Arabia	Operational	SAIP announced it will allow extensions of time. Payment of annuities has been extended to August 31, 2020	All original documents can be filed after the force majeure situation is over. Filing can be done with colored scanned copies	June 30
Sudan	Operational	No extension announced yet	Usual procedure – soft copies followed by originals. A simply signed POA is usually required	July 23
Tanzania	Operational	No extension announced yet	Original documents can be submitted online or otherwise sent by courier	April 8
Tunisia	Operational	No extension announced yet	TMO will be flexible during this period. A simply signed POA is usually required	May 11
UAE	Operational	No extension announced yet	Original documents can be submitted online or otherwise sent by courier	March 23
West Bank	Operational	The TMO announced several extensions for filing oppositions against trademarks published in the Official Gazette: for issue 27, the deadline is extended to June 27, 2020, for issue 28, the deadline is extended to July 27, 2020, and for issues 29 and 30, the deadline is extended to August 27, 2020. All other deadlines are extended to June 27, 2020	A simply signed copy of POA is sufficient and the original may be submitted within three months from the filing date. Due to the current situation, more than one extension of time is acceptable	May 29
Yemen	Operational	No extension announced yet	Original documents should be submitted once received without late surcharges, simply signed copies of the required documents are sufficient at this stage (original documents should be submitted whenever possible)	March 30
Zanzibar	Operational	No extension announced yet	Original documents can be submitted online or otherwise sent by courier	April 8

For more information on how to reach a particular office in the Saba IP Network, please click here

Should you have any questions, or require any additional information on the above, please contact us at support@sabaip.com