A Milestone for Design Protection

UAE Strengthens Intellectual Property Framework with Accession to the Locarno Agreement

The UAE's accession to the Locarno Agreement, announced alongside record first-half filing figures, signals a maturing intellectual property regime and opens fresh strategic opportunities for rights holders across the Emirates and the wider GCC.

The United Arab Emirates has taken a decisive step in strengthening its intellectual property framework. At the 68th session of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), held in Geneva from 7 to 15 July 2026, the UAE confirmed its accession to the Locarno Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Industrial Designs. The announcement was made by the UAE delegation headed by Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, accompanied by Dr Abdulrahman Hassan Al Muaini, Assistant Undersecretary for Intellectual Property at the Ministry.

The accession arrives on the back of striking growth figures. The Ministry of Economy and Tourism reported that the UAE registered 17,217 national and international trademarks in the first half of 2026 alone, against a full-year 2025 total of 39,113. That momentum extends across the wider IP portfolio, and, taken together, the data and the treaty accession point to the same conclusion: the UAE is building an IP ecosystem calibrated to the highest international standards, and rights holders should be positioning accordingly.

The headline numbers

The first half of 2026 tells a clear story of accelerating IP activity across every principal right:

• Trademarks: 17,217 national and international marks registered in H1 2026, tracking strongly against the 39,113 registered across the whole of 2025.
• Copyright and creative works: registered intellectual works rose 35.4 per cent year on year in H1 2026, building on a 2025 total of 2,082 registrations.
• Patents: patent applications grew by an estimated 12 per cent compared with the same period in 2025, when total filings reached 4,353.
• Utility model certificates: applications increased by 7.14 per cent over the comparable period.

Enforcement Activity

On the enforcement side, the Ministry's Insta Block Centre reported blocking 31,852 infringing websites during 2026, with the number of blocked sites rising 26 per cent in the first half of the year. The message to counterfeiters and pirates is unambiguous, and the message to legitimate rights holders is equally clear: the machinery to protect registered rights is being actively resourced.

What the Locarno Agreement is, and why it matters

Concluded in Locarno, Switzerland, on 8 October 1968 and administered by WIPO, the Locarno Agreement establishes a single, unified international classification system for industrial designs. In practical terms, it provides a common taxonomy of classes and subclasses under which designs are registered and searched. Membership brings three tangible benefits for design owners operating in or through the UAE.

• Comparability and searchability: designs filed in the UAE will sit within the same classification framework used across member states, making prior-art searches, clearance work and portfolio management materially more efficient across borders.
• Alignment with global practice: classification consistency reduces friction when coordinating filings between the UAE and other jurisdictions, and lays the groundwork for smoother interaction with the wider WIPO design architecture.
• Institutional credibility: accession signals to investors, licensees and international counterparties that UAE design protection is administered to a recognised international standard.

The Minister described the accession as a significant milestone in strengthening the country's industrial design protection system and developing the national IP framework in line with the highest international standards, reflecting the UAE's vision of enhancing international cooperation in the field of intellectual property.

Part of a wider, deliberate push

The Locarno accession is not an isolated act. The Ministry has rolled out more than 60 initiatives over the past three years to strengthen the innovation, creativity and IP environment. Among them is the Trademarks Market, described as the first digital platform of its kind in the UAE and the region dedicated to the sale and trading of trademarks, an important development for any business that treats its brand portfolio as a transactable asset rather than a static registry entry.

These efforts are producing measurable results. The UAE has retained its top ranking in the Arab world for the sixth consecutive year in the Global Innovation Index and advanced to 30th place globally. The country also ranked first worldwide for artificial intelligence adoption in the first quarter of 2026, a reminder that IP strategy and technology strategy are increasingly inseparable, particularly where AI-generated and AI-assisted works raise novel questions of ownership and protection.

What this means for businesses

For companies operating in or entering the UAE, the combination of a broader treaty framework and demonstrably rising enforcement activity has practical consequences. Design-led businesses in sectors such as consumer products, fashion, furniture, packaging, automotive and industrial equipment now have a stronger, more internationally aligned platform on which to protect the appearance of their products. Brand owners, meanwhile, operate in a market where trademark registration volumes and enforcement mechanisms are both scaling quickly, which raises both the opportunity and the cost of inaction.

The strategic questions for boards and general counsel are straightforward but pressing. Is our design and brand portfolio filed and classified correctly under the frameworks the UAE now applies? Are our filings coordinated sensibly across the jurisdictions in which we actually trade? Are our rights being monitored and enforced, and are our brand assets structured so they can be licensed, assigned or transacted efficiently when the commercial moment arrives?

How Crowe can help

Crowe's Corporate, Legal and Advisory Services team advises rights holders across the full intellectual property lifecycle, combining legal drafting to premium institutional standards with the commercial and tax perspective that IP increasingly demands. We support clients with:

• Design protection and classification: advising on industrial design registration strategy under the Locarno-aligned framework, including classification, clearance searches and coordinated filing programmes.
• Trademark registration and portfolio management: national and international filings, watch and renewal management, brand clearance, and structured docketing so nothing lapses unnoticed.
• Patents and utility models: filing strategy and coordination, working alongside technical agents where specialist prosecution is required.
• Copyright and creative works: registration and protection strategy, including emerging questions around AI-generated and AI-assisted works.
• IP audits, valuation and due diligence: identifying, valuing and de-risking IP assets in financings, joint ventures, acquisitions and restructurings.
• Licensing, assignment and commercialisation: drafting and negotiating IP agreements, and advising on the sale or trading of marks, including through the UAE's Trademarks Market platform.
• Enforcement and anti-counterfeiting: advising on infringement response, takedowns and coordination with the Ministry's enforcement mechanisms.
• Cross-border coordination and tax alignment: integrating UAE filings with international protection strategy and ensuring IP-holding structures are efficient under the UAE Corporate Tax regime and transfer pricing principles.

As part of the Crowe global network, we coordinate seamlessly across jurisdictions, so that a UAE-centred IP strategy connects to a client's protection needs wherever they operate.

Let us help you position for the next phase

The UAE's accession to the Locarno Agreement, set against record first-half filing figures, marks a genuine inflection point for intellectual property in the region. Businesses that treat their designs, brands and creative assets as strategic property, rather than administrative afterthoughts, will be best placed to capture the opportunity. To review your IP portfolio and protection strategy, please get in touch.