Qatar’s Trade Mark Office (TMO) has introduced a significant change to its practice concerning the specification of goods and services in trade mark applications.

Following Qatar's adoption of the 13th edition of the Nice Classification earlier this year, the TMO has now announced that goods and services must be selected from its prescribed list based on the 13th edition. Free drafting of specifications and claiming class headings will no longer be permitted.

Applicants seeking trade mark protection in Qatar will therefore need to ensure that their intended goods and services can be appropriately mapped to items available in the TMO's approved list. Where an applicant's preferred wording does not appear, the specification will need to be adapted by identifying the closest appropriate available terms.

Careful review of specifications before filing will be essential to ensure that the selected terms adequately reflect the applicant's commercial activities and intended scope of protection.

CWB will continue monitoring developments and stands ready to assist clients in assessing and adapting their existing specifications to ensure compliance with the revised TMO requirements.