It might not be your area of interest to know what is new in the Qatari legal environment, but you will not definitely waste you time if you get a quick idea about the new developments in the laws and regulations in 10 minutes of your time.
COVID-19 Updates
The government is still exercising its utmost efforts to curb and combat the spread of COVID-19 throughout the Qatari community. During its latest meeting, the Council of Ministers took a set of important decisions to fight the COVID-19 and to stop the spread of the viral disease. The decisions include:
1. EHTERAZ App – Effective as of 22/5/2020 until further notice
All citizens and residents are obliged to install the EHTERAZ App on their cell phones when they go out their houses for any reasons for safety purposes.
2. Transportation – Effective from Tuesday, 19/5/2020, till further notice
All citizens and residents must not have more than two people in the vehicle. In addition, only maximum of three persons are allowed in taxis, limousines or private vehicles not including the driver. Ambulance and security vehicles such as military and police vehicles are exempted from this measure.
3. Exercising of Sports
It shall be done in the area close to a person’s residence, taking into consideration that one must avoid gatherings during exercise of sport and wearing facial masks.
4. Shutting down of Commercial Activities
Excluding the food and catering shops and pharmacies, all commercial activities will be on lockdown till 30/5/2020.
5. Wearing Masks
Obliging all Qatari nationals and foreign residents to wear a healthy facial mask whenever they go out unless the person is setting by himself while driving his car.
In case of non-adherence to any of the abovementioned measures, a punishment of a fine that does not exceed QAR 200,000 or imprisonment that does not exceed 3 months will be imposed.
Major new laws and regulations
- His Highness Shaikh/ Tamimi Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani issued the Law No. (10) of 2020 regarding the Protection of Drawings and Industrial Designs.
RECIPROCITY
Article (2) of the Protection of Drawings and Industrial Designs Law (the “Law”) gives a greater attention and care to the international commitments entered into by the State of Qatar pursuant to the various international and regional treaties such as the WTO treaty, GCC treaty on trademarks and Paris convention of the protection of industrial property. The Law grants the non-Qataris, who take an active or a real place of business in one of the member states in the WTO, the same rights granted by the Law to Qataris provided that they are nationals or residents of countries which deal with Qataris on reciprocity basis
The Law provides that if a registration application of an industrial design is filed in a WTO member state or which deals with Qataris on reciprocity basis, the applicant may apply to the competent Qatari office within six months from the date of filing its application abroad to register its design of template in Qatar in light of the procedures provided under the executive regulations of the Law. In this regard, the priority will be determined based on the filing date in the foreign state.
EXCLUDED TEMPLATES
The Law excludes certain templates and patterns from the scope of legal protection granted by the Law. These templates are as follows:
- Drawing(s) or templates that are usually required by the technical and professional requirements of the product.
- Drawing(s) or template(s) which includes religious symbols, or drawing(s) that include stamps, slogans, marks, or states and international organisations’ flags, and/or such drawing(s) which violate public order.
- Drawing(s) or template(s) which match or are identical to a registered or popular trademark.
REVISING THE APPLICATION
Upon filing the registration application, the competent office reviews and scrutinizes the same and may order the applicant to amend the applicant and to fulfil certain requirements which the office deems necessary.
The applicant is required to reflect the office’s amendments within 90 days otherwise the application will be discarded.
In case of rejection, the application may challenge the office’s decision within 30 days from the date on which the office renders its decision.
PUBLICATION
If the office accepts the application, the office will publish its decision on the expenses of the applicant to make sure that the public is aware of the registration of a new drawing of design and to make sure that it does not breach any other registered design. Upon publishing the drawing or design, any person who sees that the new design breaches his own ideas or products may submit a petition to the office within the period announced by the office.
EXCLUSIVITY
The registration grants the applicant an exclusive right to prevent any third party to manufacture, sell, import or distribute the products which takes the shape of form of the registered design or template unless the applicant marketed the product in any other country or gave license to a third party to carry out any of the said activities.
PROTECTION TERM
The Law a protection term of five years to the registered design or template to start from the date of filing the application. The said term may be renewed for similar two terms only upon the request of the owner.
LICENSE TO USE AND RESTRICTIONS
The law grants the owner a right to license any third party to use his drawing or template provided that the agreed term of license shall not exceed the protection term provided under the Law.
The license agreement shall be in writing and be annotated/referenced for in the official register and be announced in the concerned gazette, otherwise it will not be enforceable.
The licensee shall not assign nor sub-license the contract unless there is an agreement provides otherwise between the licensee and licensor.
- Identifying the scope, term and place of license, and
- Acting in a way that prejudices the template or drawing.
RIGHT TO COMPENSATION
While the Law protects the rights of licensor, the Law also provides similar protection to the licensee in case the licensor elected to terminate the license agreement before its expiry date. The Law give the licensee the right to seek compensation in case the licensor terminated the license agreement before its agreed expiration term provided that the licensee proves the fault and damage of the licensor.
CRIMINAL PUNISHMENTS
The Law provides for a penalty of imprisonment which does not exceed 3 years and/or a capped fine of one million Qatari riyals for whoever:
- Counterfeits or mocks a registered drawing or industrial template.
- Uses, in bad faith, a mocked or counterfeited drawing or industrial template.
- Places, with bad intention, a drawing or template owned by another person on a product.
The law also provides for a punishment of imprisonment that does not exceed one year and a fine which does not exceed one hundred thousand Qatari Riyals, or either punishment for whoever:
- Sells, displays, trades in, or possesses seized products that contain a counterfeited or mocked drawing or industrial template, while having knowledge of such infringement.
- Unlawfully writes on products or documents in a manner that leads others to believe that a drawing or industrial template has been registered.
- Intentionally fails to affix a registered drawing or industrial template to products that are designated by such drawing or template.
- Possesses tools or materials intended to be used for mocking or counterfeiting a registered drawing or industrial template.
In all cases, the court may order the confiscation of tools or materials as well as the mocked or counterfeited products or may order the damage of the same.
CIVIL REMEDIES
The Law also grants the owner to seek civil compensation in case of any breach to his legal rights granted by the law provided that the owner/licensor proves the fault and damage.
2. His Highness Shaikh/ Tamimi Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani issued the Law No. (11) of 2020 regarding the Qatari Railways
Since the establishment of the Qatar Railways Company as a joint stock company owned by the Steering Committee on the operation of rail, there has been an indispensable need for a complete law to regulate the rail projects as well as the organization and functioning of this important means of transportation. Therefore, the Law No. (11) of 2020 (the “Railways Law”) is of special important to the economy of the State of Qatar.
The Railways Law regulates the main aspects related to the operation, activities, licensing and qualification and classification of contractors or operators who perform activities related to railways. This is in addition to the authorities and competence of the Ministry of Transportations and Communications (the “Ministry”) related to railways and it also differentiates between the jurisdiction of the Ministry and jurisdiction and competence of the Qatar Railways Company.
Differentiating Between the Jurisdiction of the Ministry and the Same of Qatar Railways Company
To avoid any conflict of competence or jurisdiction between the Ministry and Qatar Railways Company, the Railways Law differentiated between the competence and jurisdiction of the two entities of follows:
The authorities of the Ministry include which include the following:
- Planning and regulating railway networks in the country.
- Regulating construction works related to railways and the operation thereof.
- Ensuring that all licenses related to operation, organization, or technical review of matters concerning safety and accidents comply with the applicable terms and conditions.
- Concluding contracts and memoranda of understanding related to the transportation of people and goods by rail, with any entity, whether inside or outside the country.
- Issuing the necessary licenses related to the construction of railway infrastructure.
- Adopting specifications and technical standards related to the development and maintenance of railway networks.
- Recommending rules and standards related to operational safety.
- Qualifying and classifying contractors and operators.
On the other hand, the jurisdiction of the Qatar Railways Company includes the following:
- Suggesting the comprehensive plan for the national railway network and submitting it to the Ministry.
- Recommending the integration plan between the railway network and the country’s main transportation network.
- Inspecting drivers, conductors, as well as safety and control personnel.
- Ensuring the safe and secure operation of railways.
- Determining standards and technical specifications related to railways.
- Proposing the fee structure related to railways.
- Supervising contractors, consultants, and persons responsible for administering the projects.
- Performing any other tasks assigned by the competent Minister.
Contractors
The Railways Law states in Article (5) that a contractor, consultant or operator of any activity related to railways or its infrastructure shall be classified and registered with the Ministry in order to perform any work related to constructions, contracting, consultation and/or operation related work of railways.
Obligations
The Railways Law obliges the owner, operator and contractor to make sure that it:
- Takes all necessary measures to mitigate risks that may arise from the performance of its activities.
- Operates the railways in a safe manner and maintains general safety requirements during operation in accordance with applicable laws.
- Submits to the Ministry any information it may require.
- Refrains from carrying out any activity that may jeopardize the safety of any person using the railways.
- Maintains the railways in compliance with the requirements of safety certificates.
- Obtains the Ministry’s approval prior to making any material change to railway systems, operations, or infrastructure.
If you are interested to know more details about any of the abovementioned updates, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@alansarilaw.com