Intellectual Property in Morocco

There are several different forms of intellectual property available, but the one that I would like to talk about is trademark. Trademark represents, by the law “a sign susceptible of graphic representation used to distinguish products and services of a natural or legal entity”. (Article 133 of the law 17-97). This specific form of intellectual property can protect several organisms of the company. First of all, it protects the name of the company (letters and numbers); also, it protects any image related to the company or its logo. Trademark can also preserve the rights for any song or jingle, as well as any fragrances or graphics related to a certain company or name. There are three different types of trademark, which depend on the type of intellectual property.

- “Manufacturer’s brand”, claimed by the manufacturer of a certain product;

- “The trademark”, claimed by the seller of a specific product;

- “The services mark”, claimed by the company offering a specific service.

Before registering a trademark, the brand should satisfy three criteria.

- “Licit”: the logo of the company should not include any forbidden image;

- “Distinctive”: the product or the services provided by the company should be original;

- “Available”: the name should not be similar to another one that already exists.

After this, the official registration of a trademark starts, and this procedure includes six different steps. 1. “Before filing”: In this step, the person needs to classify its product following the “Nice classification”. After this, if the person is a resident in the country of Morocco, he can go directly to the second step, otherwise he will need to appoint an agent, which will take care of all legal matters instead of the person. 2. “The Method of Filing”: the filing can be done in three different ways. Through an OMPIC office (Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property), through the chamber of commerce located in Casablanca, or online via the website www.Directinfo.ma. 3. “The Filing”: in order to complete this step, the creator of the brand needs to have a complete application, with the specific documents: two black and white and two colored versions of the trademark, the receipt of the payments made, the legal signatures. (This form is called M1, and it will be provided in the appendix). 4. “Review of the application”: during a maximum period of three months from the first date of filing, the application is reviewed by the authorities. In case of acceptance, the application is published to the “official catalog of trademarks”. 5. “Official publication”: once published in the “official catalog of trademarks”, the trademark is available online for a period of two months. 6. “Registration”: after the period of publication, if nobody claimed any right about the trademark, the brand becomes official.

After the completion of these steps, the brand is official and nobody will be able to copy it without having to face law troubles. This brings us to the last part of the paper,

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