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AIP&T has been going from strength to strength since opening its doors in 2008 and is one of the fastest-growing IP firms in West Asia and Africa. Recent highlights include the onboarding of several professionals with engineering and legal backgrounds; increased geographical coverage through six new offices; the establishment of a free trademark watch service; and a notable rise in trademark registrations. Its remarkable success is attributable in no small part to founder Mohammad Saleh Al-Otaishan, “one of the best IP lawyers in the Middle East”. Equally adept at both litigation and advisory work, the “practical, resourceful and responsive” practitioner dispenses considered advice and has an impressive hit rate in appeal proceedings.
Al-Otaishan Intellectual Property & Technology Law Firm (AIP&T) is one of the leading IP firms in West Asia and Africa. AIP&T was founded in 2008 by Mohammad Saleh Al-Otaishan, who gained his LLM in intellectual property from the University of Washington, to provide high-quality legal and advisory services at very competitive prices. Quality and success have helped the firm gain the trust of its clients and thus develop its activities from its headquarters in Riyadh into other jurisdictions in West Asia and Africa. The firm now has a total of seven offices and works in 60 other jurisdictions through professional associates. With over 50 professionals and more than 1,000 clients, AIP&T is one of the fastest-growing IP firms in the region.
Accountability and speed are the key features of AIP&T and are reflected in the numerous outstanding services that the firm provides, such as expedited filing applications, a free watch service and a centralised litigation department.
With filing being a central aspect of securing IP rights, AIP&T aims to perform this procedure expeditiously in all its branch offices, as well as through its associates in the region. Our expertise enables us to avoid restrictions to such filing and we even use social media communications with our associates to proceed quickly in critical cases.
Trademark infringement of successful brands is an unavoidable problem in the region. In order to monitor brands in key jurisdictions, AIP&T has created an independent trademark watch department that thoroughly checks all publications in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Nigeria, the members of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation and the African Intellectual Property Organisation.
The litigation department at AIP&T has 20 IP attorneys who work on the centralisation of IP litigation and the championing of international IP practices to local courts.
The first aspect consists of the team directly analysing, preparing and drafting complaints, memoranda, arguments and counter-arguments for local lawyers who physically perform litigation in the relevant jurisdiction. This centralised approach enables the firm to maintain control over the quality and strength of the arguments used.
The second aspect involves educating the local courts in the industrial and commercial policies and practices used by courts in more sophisticated jurisdictions. Our experience shows a significant gap between international practice and the understanding of intellectual property by courts in our region. Accordingly, the litigation department strives to bridge this gap by presenting best practices to local courts. This ultimately supports brand owners in ensuring that their valuable rights will not be lost because of an incorrect application of industrial or commercial policies. For example, many courts across the region do not examine the strength and distinctiveness of marks. As a result, they issue unreasonable decisions. Our team’s mission is therefore to present these schisms clearly – and, on the whole, we succeed.
AIP&T has a very active patent department with annual filing of 700 to 1,000 applications. Our patent attorneys have a background in engineering and cover all aspects of patent protection, from filing and prosecution to litigation and high volume of annuity payments. In addition, the firm also handles over 4,000 trademark applications, renewals and other procedures annually.
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