Special to ag-IP-news Agency
AMMAN - The Information Center at Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) has recently launched its e-search service for trademarks published in Arab countries.
Access to this service could be either through AGIP’s web page http://search.agip.com/, or by logging into the AGIP website (www.agip.com), and then choosing and pressing the Main Options button and selecting Search for Trademarks to access the page.
From this page, the user can access a database comprising of more than two million trademarks available in Arab countries, including Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, West Bank, Gaza, Yemen, Libya and Iraq.
The website provides three types of high-quality and cost effective search. The search can be done by selecting the Identical Search option, which provides the users with immediate results related to anything published which is identical to the trademark in question that appear directly. The second type of search could be via the Find Similar option, which provides immediate results presenting any published trademarks that are identical or similar to the trademark in question. The last option is via Professional Search which provides more broad results that would be sent to the inquirer within 24-48 working hours. The results for this last option would include a search for trademarks in Arabic language, the translation and transliteration of the trademark and results for any trademarks that have a similar shape as well as trademarks similar to the one in question.
AGIP’s decision to provide such a service came as a response to recent developments and updates in this field, besides the stakeholders' need to obtain results in the shortest time. The traditional way to obtain such results previously was by sending an email to all TAG-Org’s 85 offices around the world to search for the trademark in question. Such a process would definitely take a longer time to find the required results.
This initiative would make all the trademarks registered in Arab countries which had been collected over many years available to the clients. Some of these trademarks were registered in 1930 and this is their first update. AGIP Information Center has a database of more than two million trademarks with detailed records that are comprised of application number, application date, and publication details such as issuance number, date of issuance number and page number, registration number, registration date, name and nationality of the trademark owner, trademark image, description of goods and important details, in addition to the published updates for trademarks such as renewal, ownership transfer and other transactions.
AGIP was established in Kuwait in 1972 at a time when Intellectual Property (IP) protection was still in its early stages of development in the Arab region. However, since its establishment AGIP has consistently been at the forefront of efforts to improve the infrastructure of IP in the Arab world. To this end, AGIP has worked in close coordination with Arab governments and multilateral organizations on introducing an efficient IP system that has brought significant changes to the region.