Trademark Registration Cost in Dubai (2026): AED 6,500 Per Class, 50% Off for SMEs and the New AED 7,500 Opposition Fee

Short answer: registering a trademark in Dubai now costs roughly AED 6,500 per class in government fees — AED 750 examination, AED 750 publication and AED 5,000 registration — under Cabinet Resolution No. 102 of 2025, which repriced 28 trademark services when it took effect in November 2025. SMEs enrolled in the National Programme for SMEs pay 50% of that, and People of Determination are fully exempt. Budget AED 8,500–12,000 all-in for one mark in one class once agent fees are added, and 4–6 months to certificate.

That is the number. The expensive part is everything founders get wrong around it: filing under the wrong Nice class weeks before the 13th edition becomes mandatory, assuming a DET trade name is a trademark, or discovering that opposing a copycat filing — which used to be free — now costs AED 7,500 before a lawyer opens a file.

Key takeaways

Government fee: AED 6,500 per class. Fees are per class, so a software brand covering apps, SaaS and retail pays three times.

Registered SMEs get a 50% reduction across all trademark services.

Nice Classification 13th edition is mandatory for every UAE application filed on or after 27 January 2026.

Opposition filing went from free to AED 7,500; a grievance against refusal is AED 5,000.

Counterfeiting a registered mark carries a fine of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000 plus imprisonment.

Dubai is filing trademarks faster than it ever has

The UAE recorded 19,957 national and international trademark applications in the first half of 2025 — a 129% jump on the 8,711 filed in H1 2024, according to the Ministry of Economy and Tourism. Cumulative registered marks in the UAE passed 402,311 by September 2025, an all-time high.

Enforcement moved with it. Dubai Customs logged 68 intellectual-property seizures worth about AED 42.195 million in Q1 2025 alone, after 285 seizures worth roughly AED 92.695 million across 2024. An August 2025 campaign pulled more than 35 tonnes of counterfeit and smuggled goods, including 10,520 counterfeit branded items.

Here is the uncomfortable arithmetic for a Dubai founder: customs can only seize goods that infringe a registered mark. With 215,000+ active business licences in Dubai, an unregistered brand name is not a brand — it is a queue position someone else can take.

The 2026 fee table: what you actually pay

Cabinet Resolution No. 102 of 2025 was issued on 9 September 2025 and came into force on 14–15 November 2025, restructuring fees across 28 trademark services administered by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021.

Service	Fee (AED)	Note
Examination of application	750	Per class
Publication	750	Per class
Registration & certificate	5,000	Per class
Total government fee	~6,500	Per class, one mark
Expedited examination (1 working day)	2,250	New service
Filing an opposition	7,500	Previously free
Adding evidence to an opposition	350	Per submission
Grievance against refusal	5,000	Appeal route
Infringement complaint	2,250	Filed with MOET
Renewal (final year of the term)	5,750	Per class
Renewal in the 6-month grace period	6,500	Late surcharge
Conversion to a WIPO international application	400	Madrid gateway
Trade mark agency licence renewal	7,500	Previously free

Two things most Dubai cost guides skip. First, fees are charged per class, not per brand. A typical UAE tech company wanting real coverage files Class 9 (downloadable software), Class 42 (SaaS and development services) and Class 35 (online retail and advertising) — that is AED 19,500 in government fees, before agent costs. Second, the late-payment penalty on MOET services runs AED 1,000 per month, capped at AED 10,000 a year, so a forgotten renewal compounds quietly.

The 50% SME discount nobody quotes you

Businesses registered under the National Programme for SMEs and Projects receive a 50% reduction on all trademark service fees — taking a filing that would sit at AED 6,500 to roughly AED 3,250 per class. People of Determination are exempt from trademark fees entirely. If you hold a Dubai SME registration and your agent quoted you full price, ask why.

The 27 January 2026 reclassification trap

WIPO's Nice Classification 13th edition entered into force globally on 1 January 2026, and the UAE has confirmed it is mandatory for all new applications filed on or after 27 January 2026. Applications filed before that date are examined under the previous edition. Existing registrations are not automatically reclassified.

The changes that matter to Dubai businesses:

“Artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS)” now sits in Class 42. If you are launching an AI product in the UAE, that is your class.
Eyewear moves from Class 9 to Class 10.
Electric toothbrushes move from Class 10 to Class 21.
Electrically heated garments move from Class 11 to Class 25.

Filing in a class the 13th edition no longer recognises for your goods invites an office action, a provisional refusal, or — worst case — a granted registration that does not actually cover what you sell. Since a refusal grievance now costs AED 5,000, a wrong class is not a clerical error. It is a line item.

Your trade name is not a trademark

This is the single most common misunderstanding in Dubai. A DET trade name reservation costs about AED 620 (up to roughly AED 2,000 for premium or foreign names) plus AED 120 initial approval. It gives you the right to operate under that name. It gives you no exclusive ownership of the brand, no right to stop a competitor using it, and nothing customs can act on.

A registered trademark under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 gives you exclusive rights across all seven emirates for 10 years from the filing date, renewable for unlimited successive 10-year terms. Use it or lose it: Article 24 bis allows third parties to cancel a mark unused for five consecutive years.

Going regional: the Madrid Protocol maths

If Dubai is your base and the GCC is your market, filing nationally in each country gets expensive fast. The Madrid Protocol — 117 members covering 133 countries — lets you extend a UAE base registration abroad from a single application. WIPO's basic fee is CHF 653 for a black-and-white mark or CHF 903 in colour, plus roughly CHF 100 complementary fee per designated country and CHF 100 per class beyond three. A single-class B&W mark designating several markets typically lands in the CHF 2,500–4,000 range. The UAE charges AED 400 to convert your national filing into the international application.

How long it takes

Budget 4–6 months from filing to certificate in the clean case, or 6–12 months including a proper clearance search. Examination runs 1–3 months — or one working day for AED 2,250 if you use the new expedited service. Publication is followed by a 30-day opposition window, and only after it closes unopposed does the certificate issue.

The cost of not registering

Article 49 of the trademark law sets imprisonment plus a fine of not less than AED 100,000 and not more than AED 1,000,000 for forging or counterfeiting a registered mark. Article 50 covers selling, offering or possessing goods bearing a forged mark: up to one year plus AED 50,000–200,000. Repeat offences can draw double the maximum. None of that protection exists for an unregistered brand.

Run the comparison the other way. A single-class filing is AED 6,500 — AED 3,250 if you are a registered SME. A forced rebrand in year three — new logo, new packaging, new domain, new app-store listings, new signage, lost search equity — routinely runs past AED 100,000 for a Dubai company with any real footprint. Registration is the cheapest insurance on the balance sheet.

How Aquarius handles the brand side

We are not a law firm and we do not file applications — a licensed UAE trademark agent does that, and it is worth every dirham. What we do is make sure the asset you are filing is worth protecting and consistently deployed:

Registrable identity design. A distinctive wordmark and logo lock-up rather than a descriptive phrase that examiners refuse. Generic and descriptive marks are the most common rejection ground in the UAE.
Arabic and bilingual lock-ups. Many Dubai brands file the Latin mark and forget the Arabic rendering entirely — see our guide to Arabic website localisation and RTL design for why the Arabic form is a separate asset.
Consistent application across web and product so the use evidence you may need against a non-use cancellation actually exists, dated and public.
Asset handover — vector files, colour specs and usage rules in the format an agent needs for the filing specimen.

Our brand identity and web work is priced transparently on the pricing page, and identity projects include the file formats a trademark filing requires at no extra charge.

FAQ

How much does it cost to register a trademark in Dubai in 2026?

About AED 6,500 per class in government fees (AED 750 examination + AED 750 publication + AED 5,000 registration). With a licensed agent handling the filing, budget AED 8,500–12,000 total for one mark in one class. Registered SMEs pay 50% of the government fees.

Does a Dubai trademark cover the whole UAE?

Yes. A single registration with the Ministry of Economy and Tourism covers all seven emirates, including free zones. There is no separate emirate-level trademark.

How long does a UAE trademark last?

Ten years from the filing date, renewable for unlimited successive 10-year terms. Renewal in the final year costs AED 5,750 per class; in the six-month grace period after expiry it rises to AED 6,500.

What changes on 27 January 2026?

Every new UAE trademark application must use the Nice Classification 13th edition. Applications filed before that date are examined under the previous edition, and existing registrations are not reclassified automatically.

Can I register a trademark in Dubai without a local agent?

Applications are filed through the MOET portal, but a licensed UAE trademark agent is strongly recommended — and required in practice for foreign applicants without a UAE presence. The AED 7,500 opposition fee and AED 5,000 refusal grievance fee make a cheap filing error expensive to unwind.

Next step

If your brand is going to be worth protecting, protect the version of it you actually want to own for the next decade — not the placeholder logo from launch week. Tell us what you are building and we will send the 2026 Dubai brand-protection checklist plus an honest view of whether your current identity is registrable as-is.