The UAE is a member of the Berne Convention for the protection of literary, artistic works & computer software.
Under the Federal Copyright Law No. 38 for the year 2021, the following works can be protected as a copyright in the United Arab Emirates:
The protection provided for in this decree applies to authors of works and neighboring rights holders if their rights are violated within the state, especially the following works:
1. Books, pamphlets, articles, and other written works.
2. Applications, computer programs and their applications, databases, and similar works as determined by decision of the minister.
3. Lectures, sermons, written and oral speeches, and other similar works.
4. Dramatic works, musical dramatic works, and silent performances.
5. Musical works with or without lyrics.
6. Audio, visual, or audio-visual works.
7. Architectural works, drawings, and Geometric schemes.
8. Line drawings or color drawings, sculpture, engraving, printing on stone, fabrics, wood, or metal, and any similar works in the field of fine arts.
9. Photographic works and similar works.
10. Works of applied and plastic art.
11. Illustrations, geographical maps, architectural drawings, and three-dimensional works related to geography, topography, architectural designs, and others.
12. Derived works, without prejudice to the protection provided for the works derived from them.
The protection does not include the following:
1. Ideas, procedures, working methods, mathematical concepts, principles, and abstract facts, but it applies to the innovative expression of any of these.
2. Official documents, regardless of their original language or the language they have been translated into, such as texts of laws, regulations, decisions, international agreements, judicial judgments, arbitrators' decisions, and decisions issued by administrative committees with judicial jurisdiction.
3. News and reports of events and current affairs that are merely informational.
4. Works that have fallen into the public domain.
However, groups items mentioned in points (2), (3), and (4) of this article are entitled to protection if their collection, arrangement, or any creative effort in them is distinctive.
Protection period:
In general, the financial rights of the author as stipulated in this decree are protected by law for the duration of their life, and for 50 years starting from the following calendar year after their death. For further details on protection periods of copyright, you may write to us or send inquiry through contact page on this site.
Time Frame:
An application for a copyright can be submitted to the office of Intellectual Works at the Ministry of Economy. The registration process may take 1 to 2 months till the certificate of registration is issued.
Registration of a copyright does not give the author any right to publish. Approvals from the concerned authorities should be obtained for publication purposes depending on the nature of the proposed materials.