Deposit of DMI in Morocco

To be able to register a design or a model you should generally proceed as follows:

• Fill in the application provided by the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property, which must include your name, your contact information as well as your designs or photographies of the design or model in question;
• You can attach a brief description of the design or model. In general, the description includes the design or model and not the product this design or model applies. It must be precise and must distinguish the designs and previous similar models. It should enumerate all the distinctive aesthetic features of the design or model and describe the most important.
• You can appeal to the services of an agent of intellectual property to help filing the application.
• You can use the services of an intellectual property agent to help you file the application and go to the end of the registration procedure. In case, you should also file a power in the name of the representative.

The Moroccan Office for Industrial and Commercial Property does not register the design or model before having formally verified that the administrative formalities have been completed.

Once a design or model has been registered, It is registered as industrial designs and models.  A statement constant deposition and stating the date of such deposit attachments shall be prepared by the Office as well as the certificate of registration of industrial design. Then the Moroccan Office for Industrial and Commercial Property publishes industrial design in an official catalog of industrial designs.

For an electronic filing in Morocco, you can have access to the site http://www.directinfo.ma/

The registration procedure of an industrial design or model usually takes between one day and three months depending on whether the filing application of industrial design or model is complete or not. A supplementary period of two months is given to the applicant or his agent to present a request for further proceedings.

The different possible types of costs are :

• Registrating taxes must be paid to the Moroccan Office for Industrial and Commercial Property. These taxes will usually vary in function with the number of industrial designs or models for which protection is sought;
• If you use the services of an Intellectual Property agent for filing your application, you will also have to pay a fee;
• Renewal taxes every five years, to maintain in force exclusive rights to an industrial design or model;
• There may be costs of translating the application of industrial design or model, if this one must be protected abroad.

[1]This is the online tariff, The payment fees of online service are not included (commissions of the operator of the online payment and the operator certification and authentification fees)

The term of the protection of a registered industrial design or model is 5 years. Holders have the right to a 5-year renewal twice, if they proceed to a renewal application. After this period, the validity of the industrial design or model expires.

Art 122: Registration of an industrial design or model shall produce its effects for five years from the date of filing. It can be renewed under the same formalities and conditions as those provided in chapter III of the present title for two consecutive periods of five years. The registration renewal must be made within six months previous to the expiracy of its validity. However, a grace delay of six months from the expiray of the validity period is granted to the applicant to make such renewal.

Renewal runs from the expiry of the validity of registration.

Renewal service of an industrial design/model allows to extend the validity of the industrial design/model. The renewal can be done within six months previous to the expiry of the validity of the industrial design/model or during a grace period of six months, from the expiry of the duration of validity, subject to payment of rights delay. The validity of the industrial design/model is five years renewable twice.