WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION  
ORGANISATION MONDIALE DU COMMERCE  
ORGANIZACIÓN MUNDIAL DEL COMERCIO  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
3 March 2004 
 (04-0951) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of 
Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English/ 
 anglais/  inglés 
 
MAIN DEDICATED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 
LAWS AND REGULATIONS NOTIFIED UNDER 
ARTICLE 63.2 OF THE AGREEMENT 
 
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 
   The present document reproduces the text
1 of Federal Law No. (7) of the year 2002 
concerning copyrights and neighboring rights, as notified by the United Arab Emirates under 
Article 63.2 of the Agreement (see document IP/N/1/ARE/2). 
 
 Conseil des aspects des droits de propriété 
intellectuelle qui touchent au commerce  
  
PRINCIPALES LOIS ET RÉGLEMENTATIONS CONSACRÉES À LA 
PROPRIÉTÉ INTELLECTUELLE NOTIFIÉES AU TITRE 
DE L'ARTICLE 63:2 DE L'ACCORD 
 
ÉMIRATS ARABES UNIS 
   Le présent document contient le texte
1 de la Loi fédérale n° 7 de  2002 sur le droit d'auteur et 
les droits voisins, notifiée par les Émirats arabes unis au titre de l'article 63:2 de l'Accord (voir le document IP/N/1/ARE/2).  
 
Consejo de los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad 
Intelectual relacionados con el Comercio  
  
PRINCIPALES LEYES Y REGLAMENTOS DEDICADOS A LA 
PROPIEDAD INTELECTUAL NOTIFICADOS EN VIRTUD 
DEL PÁRRAFO 2 DEL ARTÍCULO 63 DEL ACUERDO 
 
EMIRATOS ÁRABES UNIDOS 
 
  En el presente documento se reproduce el texto
1 de la Ley Federal Nº 7 de 2002 sobre derecho 
de autor y derechos conexos, notificada por los Em iratos Árabes Unidos en virtud del párrafo 2 del 
artículo 63 del Acuerdo (véase documento IP/N/1/ARE/2). 
                                                      
 1 In English only./En anglais seulement./En inglés solamente.   IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
Page 2  
 
  
United Arab Emirates 
Ministry of information and Culture 
 
 
Federal Law No. (7) of the year 2002 
concerning copyrights and neighboring rights. 
 
We, Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates, 
 After reviewing the constitution;  
 
And the Federal Law no. (1) of the year 1972 regard ing the Ministries jurisdictions and the powers of 
the Ministers; and the laws amending it;  And the Federal Law no. (15) of the year 1980, regarding the printed matters and publication; 
 
And the Federal Law no. (40) of the year 1992, rega rding the protection of the Intellectual Works and 
the Copyright;  And pursuant to what has been submitted by the Minister of Information and Culture; 
And the consent of the Council of Ministers;  
 
And the approval of the Supreme Council of the Union;  Have issued the following law:  
 
Definitions 
Article (1)  
 
In applying the provisions of this law the followi ng words denote the definitions explained before 
each one of them, unless the context denotes otherwise:  
“The State”     The State of the United Arab Emirates. 
 “The Ministry”    The Ministry of Information and Culture.   
 “The Minister”   The Minister of Information and Culture. 
 
“The Work”  Any created compilation, in the scope of letters, arts, 
sciences, whatsoever is its type, mode of expression, value or purpose.   
 
“The Author”  The person who creates the work, and the person who has his 
name mentioned on the work, or has the work attributed to him as its author at the time of publication, unless proved otherwise.  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
 Page 3 
 
 
  
Whoever publishes the work anonymously or pseudonymously is considered to be the author, provided that no doubt to identify the real author arises.  In case that such doubt arises the publisher or the producer of the work, 
whether natural or legal person, will be presumed the author’s 
representative, to practice  the author’s rights until the character of the author is identified. 
   “Creation”  The creativeness that gives ge nuineness and distinctiveness to 
the work.  
 
“ The holder of the neighbouring rights”   
The performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting 
organizations, who are defined in this law.  
 
“The Performers”  The actors, singers, musicians,  dancers and other persons who 
recite, chant, play or perform by any way literary or artistic works or others protected according to the provisions of this law or inclusive within the public property. 
 
“ The Producer of Phonogram ” The natural or legal person w ho records for the first time 
sounds of a performer or other sounds. 
 “ Broadcasting Organization”  Any authority practices sound, visual or audio-visual and 
wireless broadcasting transmission. 
 
“Broadcasting”  Sound, visual or audio-visual wireless transmittal of work, 
performance, phonogram, programme and its recording, to the public.  Transmittal via satellite and orbit is considered the same. 
 
“ Publication”  Availability of the work, the phonogram, the 
broadcasting programme or any performance to the public, irrespective of the used mode. 
 
“Public Performance”   The performance that links the public directly with the work 
such as acting of dramatic works, reciting or performing the artistic works, exhibition of audio-visual works, playing musical works, reciting literary works whether live or 
recorded. 
 “Public Communication”  Wire or wireless transmission of a work, sound recording 
performance, broadcasting programme, that can be received through transmission only by others who are not family 
members or intimate friends, in any place other than the place 
from which the transmission is made, irrespective of the place, the time of receiving and the medium. 
 “Reproduction”  To make a copy or more of a work, phonogram, broadcasting 
programme or any performance in any shape including IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
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 permanent or temporary electronic storing, irrespective of the 
mode used in reproduction.   
 “ Phonogram”  Any fixation of certain performed sounds addressing the 
hearing irrespective of the mode of fixation or the used 
device.  The phonogram also includes sounds fixation with 
picture in order to prepare a udiovisual work unless agreed 
otherwise. 
 “Producer of audio-visual work”  The natural or legal person who provides the necessary 
facilities to accomplish the audio-visual work, and assumes 
the responsibility of such accomplishment.  
 “ Collective Work”  The work compiled by a group of authors under the direction 
of a natural or legal person who pledges to publish it in his 
name and under his own supervision.  The contribution of 
authors will be assimilated into the public goal aimed by such a person in such a way that separation and distinction of each author’s contribution becomes impossible. 
 “Joint Work”  It is the work compiled by a number of persons whether the 
lot of each one can be separate d or not and which cannot be 
listed under the collective works. 
 “Derived Work”  The work that derives its or igin from a previously existing 
work such as translations. The literary, artistic and folkloric 
expressions as long as they are innovated in a way of 
selecting and arranging their contents. 
 “National Folklore”  Every expression of people heritage either oral, musical, 
dynamic, or tangible in distinct elements reflects the artistic traditional inheritance, developed or survived in the State and 
which cannot be attributed to an author. 
 “Public Property”  Are all the works initially excluded from the protection or 
have the period of protection of their economic rights expired.  
  
     
 
    
 
    IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
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 Section One 
 
Scope of Protection 
 
Article 2 
 
Authors of the works and the holders of the neighbor ing rights, shall enjoy the protection of this law 
in case that an aggression against their rights occurs  in the State, namely in the following works: 
1. Books, pamphlets, essays and other written works. 
2. Computer programmes and applications, databases and works analogous to them as 
defined by a Minister’s decision. 
3. Lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of similar nature. 
4. Dramatic, dramatico-musical works and dumb shows. 
5. Music compositions with or without words. 
6. Sound and audiovisual works. 
7. Architecture works, engineering plans and layouts. 
8. Works of drawing, painting, sculpture and lithography (fabric, metal, stones, 
wood)and engrave or an similar works in the scope of fine arts. 
9. Photographic works and works analogous to photography. 
10. Works of applied and plastic art. 
11. Illustrations, geographical maps, sketches, three-dimensional works relative to 
geography, topography and architecture designs etc. 
12. Derived works without prejudice to the pr otection stipulated for the works been 
derived from. The protection includes the title of the work if innovated and the innovated theme written for a broadcasting programme. 
 
Article 3 
Protection does not extend to mere ideas, procedur es, methods of work, mathematical understandings, 
principles, and abstract facts, but extend to creative expression in any of them. 
Protection does not extend also to the following: 
(1) The official documents, whatever is their original language or the language 
translated to them, such as the texts of laws, regulations, decisions, international 
agreements, judgments, arbitrators’ awards and the decisions of the 
administrative committees having judicial competence. 
(2) The news, events and the current facts, which constitute merely media news.   
(3) The works transferred to public property. 
Nevertheless, the items in pa ragraph 1, 2 and 3 of this article if their compilation 
or arrangement or any effort thereof is characterized by creative manner shall 
enjoy protection.. 
Article 4 
The Ministry constitutes a system for depositing or registering the rights of the works or any actions 
that may arise at a specific authority therein, according to the stipulations of the implementing 
regulation of this law.  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
Page 6  
 
 The registers of deposit or registration of rights in  the Ministry are considered as reference to the 
details of the work. 
Non-deposit of the work or non-registration of its ri ghts or any action allotted to it does not prejudice 
any of the protection aspects or the rights decided by this law. 
Section 2 
The Rights of the Author  
Article 5 
The author and his successors in title enjoy literary  rights not subject to prescription or assignment of 
the work; these rights include the following: 
1. The right to determine first publication of the work. 
2. The right of writing the work in his name. 
3. The right to protest against alteration of the work if the alteration leads to distortion, 
mutation or causing derogation to the author. 
4. The right to withdraw his work from circulation in case of serious reasons justifying 
such an act.  He may practice this right through the competent court, provided that he pays a fair compensation to the one who ga ined the rights of economic exploitation in 
the time specified by the court and before the execution of the judgment of 
withdrawal, otherwise the judgment will have no effect. 
 
Article 6 
Alteration in the field of translati on is not considered to be violati on unless the translator ignored to 
refer to the areas of deletion, modification, or o ffended by his action the status of the author. 
Article 7 
Only the author and his successors or the holder of the right of the author can grant license for 
exploitation of the work by any means, particularly for copying including electronic loading or storing, acting a play by any means, broadcasti ng, re-broadcasting transmission, performance, public 
communication, translation, modification, alteratio n, rental, lending or publication by any means 
including provision of publication through computer s or information nets or communication nets or 
other means. 
Article 8 
Rental right of the computer programmes does not apply unless the programme itself is the original 
object of rent.  It does not also apply to audiovisu al works unless it  affects its regular exploitation. 
Article 9 
The author or his successors, can transfer to a natural or legal third party, all or part of his economic 
rights stipulated in this law provided that such acti on be in writing specifying the object of the right to 
be exploited along with the purpose, the duration and place of exploitation.  The author is the owner 
of all the rights except what he disposes openly.  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
 Page 7 
 
 
 Without violation of the literary rights of the author  stipulated in this law, the author cannot perform 
any act that can impair the exploitation of the disposed right. 
Article 10 
The author or his successors can char ge cash or in rem  in consideration of transfering one or more 
rights of economic exploitation of the work to a third party on rational contribution base in the 
revenue resulting from exploitation.  He can also ente r in contract against a random amount or to deal 
in both ways.   
Article 11 
In the event that such agre ement as in article 10 of this law, turn ed to be unfair towards the author’s 
right or to any of the holders of the neighbor ing rights, or became so due to unpredictable 
circumstances occurred after entering in contract, the author, his successors or successors may resort 
to competent court to review the consideration agreed upon.  
Article 12 
Without prejudice to article (9) herein, the transfer of economic rights in respect of computer program 
works or the databases depend on the contact license  mentioned or sticked to the programs whether 
appeared on the phonogram or either loaded or stor ed to be seen on the computer screen.  The one 
who purchases or uses the program will undertake to follow the conditions in the license. 
Article 13 
The free action of the author in the original manu script of his work does not transfer any of its 
economic rights, unless agreed otherwise. 
Nevertheless, it is not possible wit hout prior agreement to bind the tran sferee to enable the author to 
copy, transfer, or exhibit this transferred copy. 
Article 14 
It is possible to seize the economic rights of the published works of the authors and is not possible to 
seize the works in the event of the death of th eir owner before publication unless it is decisively 
proved that he meant to publish them before his death. 
Article 15 
Any action of the author in his all prospective intell ectual works or in more than five such works is 
absolutely invalid. 
Section Three 
The domain of protection of the owners of the neighboring rights 
Article 16 
The performers and their general successors en joy a literary right, which is not assignable, 
prescribeable, but authorize them the following: 
 IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
Page 8  
 
 (i) The right of having the performance in their names whether live or recorded. 
(ii) The right to suspend any distortion, mutilation, modification or derogation 
action, which would be prejudicial to their status.  
 
The Ministry after the expiry of the economic rights s tipulated in this law shall exercise such literary 
rights in order to preserve their performance in the shape of its creation. 
Article 17 
The performers only shall enjoy the following economic rights: 
1. The right to transmit their unfixed perfo rmance and communicating it to the public. 
2. The right to fix their performance on a phonogram. 
3. The right to reproduce their fixed performance on a phonogram. 
 
Fixation of such live performance on a phonogram for direct or indi rect, commercial revenue, rental, 
transmission or availability to the public on any medi um by others without authorization of the right 
holder is a prohibited exploitation. 
The provision of this article applies to fixati on of performances in audiovisual work, by their 
performers unless agreed otherwise. 
Article 18 
The producers of phonograms shall only enjoy the following economic rights: 
1. The right to prohibit any exploitation of their phonograms by any means without 
their authorization.  Copying, rental, br oadcasting, re-broadcasting, availability to 
the public via computer or other media is an exploitation prohibited to be used by 
third parties. 
2. The right to disseminate their recordings via wire, wireless, computer or other 
means. 
 
Article 19 
The broadcasting organizations shall only enjoy the following economic rights: 
1. The right to grant licenses for exploitation of their recordings and broadcasting 
programmes. 
2. The right to prohibit any communication of their programmes or recordings to 
the public without their authorization.  Recording of such programmes, copying 
or re-copying their recordings, rental , re-broadcasting, and communication to 
the public by any means are prohibited to the third parties in particular. 
 
  
  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
 Page 9 
 
 
 Section Four 
The Term of Protection and the license to use the works. 
Article 20 
1. The economic rights of the author stipulated in this law shall be protected through 
his lifetime and fifty years begining from the first day of the calendar year following the death. 
2. The economic rights of the joint authors shall be protected through their lifetime and 
fifty years begining from the first day of the calendar year following the death of the last surviving author. 
3. The economic rights of the authors of coll ective works except the authors of applied 
arts shall be protected for a period of fifty years begining from the first day of the 
next calendar year of the first publication in case that the author is a legal person but 
in case  that the author is a natural pers on, the period will be calculated according to 
the rule stipulated in (1) and (2) of this article. The economic rights of the works published for the first time after the death of their author expire after fifty years starting the first day of the next calendar year of its 
first publications. 
4. The economic rights of the works published anonymously or pseudonymously   shall 
be protected for fifty years from the first day of the next calendar year of the first publication if the author is specified a nd known, or has disclosed his identity, the 
period of protection will be calculated accordi ng to the rule stipulated in paragraph 1 
of this article.  
5. The economic rights of the authors of the applied art works shall expire after twenty 
five years of its first publication, starting the first day of the next calendar year. 
6. In the events the term of protection is calcu lated from the date of first publication, the 
date of the first publication will be the beginning for calculating the term irrespective of the re-publication unless the author has entered in his work after revision essential 
changes that make it look as new work.   If the work was composed of many parts or 
volumes published separately in many  terms each part or volume shall be considered 
independent work at the time of calculating the term of protection. 
7. The economic rights of the performers shall be protected for a period of fifty years to 
be calculated from the beginning of the next calendar year in which the performance was accomplished, if the performance was fixed in a  phonogram the period would be 
calculated from the end of the year in which the fixation was made. 
8. The economic rights of the producers of phonograms shall be protected for fifty 
calendar years calculated from the beginning of  the next year in which the publication 
of the phonogram was done or the year in which the phonogram was fixed if it was not published. 
9. The rights of the broadcasting organizations shall be protected for twenty years 
calculated from the beginning of the next calendar year to the year in which the first transmission of these programs  was made. 
 
Article 21 
Any person may ask the ministry to grant him a com pulsory license for either copying or translation 
or for both of any work protected by the provisions of  this law only after three years from the date of 
the work publication in case of translation license.  The license shall be issued supported with reasons 
determining the time and place of exploitation, and th e fair reward due to the author provided that the 
purpose of such grant of license always be exclusive to meet the needs of education in all its types, IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
Page 10  
 
 levels and to the needs of public libraries and archives in accordance with  the specifications , 
conditions, and restrictions of the implementing regul ations and this law for granting this license in a 
way to secure non-occurrence of unjustifiable damage to  the legitimate interests of the author or his 
successors in title or effect ordinary exploitation of the work. The council of ministers shall issue a 
decision specifying the fees to be charged in this regard.  
Article 22 
Without prejudice to literary rights of the author stipul ated in this law, the author after the publication 
of his work must not prohibit a third person to perform one of the following acts: 
1. To make a sole copy from the work for the merely personal and non-commercial or 
professional but personal use of the copier.  The works of the fine and applied arts 
are excepted unless were located in public place by consent of the right holder or his successor, the works of architect ure are also excepted as in para (7) of this article and 
also the computer programs and their application unless as indicated in para (2) of this article. 
2. Making a sole copy of a computer pr ogramme with acknowledgement of its 
legitimate acquisitor who has a unit to de rive its application or database from, 
provided that such act occurs in the limits  of the licensed purpose or the purpose to 
retain or substitute at the time of losing th e original, been damaged or became invalid 
to use. 
The reserve or derived copy must be destroye d even if it was stored in a computer as 
soon as the right of acquisition of the original copy is no more valid. 
3. Copying protected works to use them in judicial procedures or analogous to them 
within the limits required by such procedures provided that the source and the author name be mentioned. 
4. Taking a sole copy of the work with acknowledgement of records house or archives, 
libraries, or documentation centers who do not seek direct or indirect profit all in the 
following two cases: 
 a. Copying must be for the purpose of preservation of the original, or to 
exchange it for a lost, destroyed uns uitable to use or not possible to 
obtain a substitute copy for it, against reasonable conditions. 
b. The purpose for copying must be in reply to application by a natural 
person to use it for research or study provided that it must be granted for one time or for interrupted periods of time provided that obtaining a license became impossible in accordan ce with the provisions of this 
law. 
 
5. Quotation of short paragraphs , derivation or reasonable analysis of the work for the 
purpose of criticism, discussion, or inform ation provided mentioning the source and 
the author’s name. 
6. Performing the work in family meetings or  by students in an educational institute 
against no direct or indirect remuneration. 
7. Presenting the fine arts, applied and plastic  arts works or architectural works in 
broadcasting programmes, if such works are permanently present in public places. 
8. Reproduction of written, sound or audio-visual  short excerpts for cultural, religious, 
educational or vocational training purpo ses, provided that copying be in the 
reasonable limits of its purpose and that the name of the author and the title of the  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
 Page 11 
 
 
 work be mentioned wherever is possible and that the copying authority does not aim 
at direct or indirect profit and that license for copying was unobtainable in accordance with the provisions of this law. 
 
Article 23 
Without prejudice to the literary rights of the author  in accordance with this law, the author must not 
prohibit copying made by newspapers, periodicals,  broadcasting organizations within the limits 
justified by the aimed purpose in order to publish any of the following: 
1. Excerpts of his available works to the public  in a legal manner, this applies also on 
communicating excerpts from audio or visual works during on-going events, 
broadcasting or communicating them to the public by any other medium. 
2. The published essays relating to discussion of issue preoccupying the public opinion 
in certain time, as long as no notification of prohibition was served at the time of publication. 
 
In all cases stipulated in paras (1) and (2) of  this article reference to the source and 
the author’s name must be mentioned. 
3. Addresses, lectures, speeches recited in open sessions of parliamentary or judicial 
councils and public meetings as long as such lectures and speeches are addressed to the public and copied within the lim its of copying the current news. 
Only the author or his successors in title have the right to collect any of these works in volumes under 
his name. 
Article 24 
The restrictions on the economic rights of the author, s tipulated in this law, shall apply to the holders 
of neighboring rights. 
Section Five 
Special Provisions on some works 
Article 25 
In case that a number of people participate in maki ng a work in a way that the share of each one 
cannot be separated from the other shares, all the pa rties shall be considered equally authors, unless 
they have agreed in writing otherwise. In this case none of them is allowed to  practise the rights of the 
author alone unless there was a written agreement among them.  In case the contribution of all the authors is listed under a different type of art in the same work each one of them has the right to exploit 
the part of his own contribution provided that this  would not damage the exploitation of the work by 
the others unless they agree in writing otherwise. 
Each one of them has the right to file a claim when  a violation of any of the author’s right protected 
by this law occurs. 
In case of death of any of the contributing author s who has no general successors in title, his share 
goes to the remaining partners or their successors  after them unless agreed in writing otherwise. IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
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 Article 26 
The natural or legal person who has directed crea tion of the collective work can practise alone the 
author’s economic and literary rights in it  unless there is an agreement otherwise. 
Article 27 
I.  A joint author in the audio-vi sual, audio or visual work can be: 
1. The scenarist 
2. The one who modifies a literary existing work to an appropriate audio-visual method. 
3. The dialogist 
4. Music composer if he compo ses it specifically for the work. 
5. The director if he practises actual supervision to accomplish the work. 
 
In case that the work is derived or extracted from a previous work the author of such work will be a 
partner in the new work. 
 
II.  The author of the literary part or the musical part has the right to publish his part in another way 
than the way in which the joint work was pub lished, unless agreed otherwise in writing. 
III In case that one of the contributors of the author s to audio or audio-visual work has desisted from 
completion of his part, the remaining partners sh all not be prohibited from exploiting the part he 
implemented without prejudice to the rights of the desistor resulted from his participation in the 
authorship. 
IV.  The producer during the whole period of exploitation of the audio or the audio visual work agreed 
upon, will be acting for the authors of this work and their successors to negotiate for its exploitation, 
without prejudice to the rights of the authors of th e literary, or musical derived or modified works, 
unless agreed otherwise in writing. 
The producer will be considered a publisher of such  work having the rights of the publisher in it and 
in its reproduction in the limits of the economic exploitation purpose. 
Article 28 
The publisher of the work that does not bear an au thor’s name or is pse udonymous will be presumed 
acting for the author to practice the rights stipulat ed in this law unless the author nominates other 
agent or reveal his character and leaves no doubt as to his identity.   
Article 29 
Buildings may not be seized, destroyed changed in shape or confiscated in order to preserve the 
author’s architectural right whose designs, drawings or engineering plans have been used illegally; 
and he must not be deprived of a fair compensation. 
 
  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
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 Section Six 
The Collective Administration Of The Copyright and The Neighboring Rights 
Article 30 
The holders of the copyright and the neighboring rights may assign their economic rights to 
specialized professional societies to administer them , or authorize other bodies to practice these rights. 
The contracts concluded in this regard by such soci eties or bodies shall be considered civil contracts. 
Article 31 
The societies or the bodies stipulated in article (30) of this law undertake to make no preference 
among the applicants who wish to enter in contracts with them to exploit the works being under their 
administration.  Granting financial discount on  licen se of exploitation by the society or the body shall 
not be considered as preference in  the following two cases, provided that its decision be supported by 
reasons: 
I. Exploitation of the works in public live presentation by the performers. 
II. Exploitation of the works for educational or cultural activities against no 
direct or indirect profits. 
Article 32 
The societies or the bodies who shall administer the rights of the author and the neighboring rights 
must not practise any activities before having annua lly a license from the Ministry, who may include 
any rules in the implementing regulation to arrange  the functions of such societies and bodies and 
may enter any necessary amendment to  the rules, systems, fees of licensing and their practices of 
work. 
The Council of Ministers shall issue a decision on the fees for granting license.  
Article 33 
The societies and other bodies administering the copyrights and the neighboring rights undertake to 
hold registers including the names of their members,  their positions and the jobs they contracted 
indicating the type of job, duration and the agreed amounts of money.  They must inform the Ministry the same whenever there is  a change in these registers.  These societies and bodies must abide by the 
administrative decisions of the Ministry.  The Mini stry may withdraw the license in the event that 
these societies or bodies do not comply with th e provisions of the law or implementing the 
administrative decisions. 
Section Seven 
Precautionary  Procedures and Penalties 
Article 34 
The chairman of the lower court in reply to the author or his successor may order on the petition the 
following for any work published or exhibited with out written authorization from the author or his 
successors. 
1. Preparing a detailed description of the work. IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
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 2. Suspension of publication, exhibition or reproduction of the work. 
3. Imposing seizure on the original work a nd reproducing it (whether book, pictures, 
drawing, performance, photograph, phonogram , broadcasting progra m or otherwise) 
and on the materials to be used in republishing this work or reproducing copies of it provided that such materials are only good for republishing this work. 
4. Proving public performance of rytheme, acting or communicating a work orally in 
public and prohibiting continuation of show then and in future 
5. Calculating the income resulted from publica tion or exhibition by an expert, to be 
appointed if necessary in addition to impos ing seizure on this revenue in all cases. 
6. Recording the violation against the protected rights according to the provisions of this 
law. 
 
The chairman of the first instance court in all cases may order appointment of an expert to assist the 
bailiff and to impose a reasonable bond to be deposited by the applicant. 
The applicant must submit the dispute to the competent court within the following fifteen 
days after the delivery of judgment. If he fa ils to do so it will seize to be effective. 
Article 35 
The one had the order issued against him may subm it a complaint to the chairman of the court who 
issued it during the next twenty working days from the date of issuance.  The chairman of the court, in this case can uphold the order, cancel it partially or to tally, or nominate a guard to re-publish, exploit, 
exhibit, manufacture or copy the disputed work a nd deposit the income resulting from it in the court’s 
treasury until the original dispute is judged.   
Article 36 
 
The customs authorities may in response to an appli cation by the author, the holder of the right or 
their successors order by a decision supported with  reasons, suspension of customs release for a 
maximum period of twenty days of any forged items  contradicting the provisions of this law.  The 
implementing regulation specifies the conditions , restrictions and procedures of non release 
application, along with the documents to be enclos ed and  the financial value of bond the applicant 
must deposit, to confirm seriousness of the applicatio n.  The application must be decided within three 
working days from the day of its proper presenta tion, the applicant should be notified with the 
decision as soon as it was issued. 
 
The customs authorities in all cases must not prohib it the concerned ones to view the items decided 
not to be released by the customs in accordance w ith the restrictions defined by the implementing 
regulation. 
 
Article 37 
Without prejudice to any severer punishment in any other law, anyone who commits without a written 
permission from the author or the holder of the neighboring right or their successors any of the following acts will be punished by imprisonment for a period not less than two months and payment of fine not less than ten thousand dirhams, not exceeding fifty thousand dirhams or by one of the two penalties: 
  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
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 1. Infringement of any of the literary or economic rights of the author or the holder of 
the neighboring right stipulated in this law, including making any work, performance, phonogram, broadcasting program of  stipulated protection in this law, 
available to the public through the computer, internets, information or communications nets or other means. 
 
2. Sale, rental, or putting in circulation by any way whatsoever a work, phonogram, 
broadcasting program protected in accordance with the provisions of this law.  The 
penalty stipulated in this article be doubl ed according to the number of the infringed 
works, performances, programs, or the r ecordings.  In case of re-committing the 
crime the penalty will be imprisonment for a period not less than six months and 
payment of fine not less than fifty thousands dirhams.  
 
Article 38 
Without prejudice to any severer punishment in a ny other law, anyone who commits any of the 
following acts will be punished with imprisonmen t for a period not less than three months and 
payment of fine not less than fifty thousand dirhams, and not exceeding five hundreds thousand 
dirhams: 
1. Manufacturing or importation without having a right, for the purpose of sale or 
rental of any equipments, instruments or  apparatus designed or prepared for the 
purpose of fraud against any technology used by the author or the holder of the 
neighboring right to arrange or administer such rights or for preservation of specific 
standard of quality of the copies. 
2. Delaying or disgracing, without having a right, any technological protection or 
electronic information meant to arrange and administer the rights stipulated in this law. 
3. Loading or storing any copy of the programs, applications, or databases in the 
computer before having a license from the au thor, the right holder of their successor. 
 
In the event of committing the crime once again the penalty will be imprisonment for 
a period not less than nine months and a fine not less than two hundred thousand dirhams. 
Article 39 
Excepted from the provision of Article 37 of this law, any person using computer programs or its 
application without a prior permission from the author or his successors  will be punished by payment of fine not less than ten thousand dirhams but not exceeding thirty thousand dirhams against each program, application or database. 
 
In the event of committing the crime once again, th e penalty will be not less than thirty thousand 
dirhams.  The court may order a close up for a period not exceeding three months if the crime is committed in the name of or to the account of a legal person, commercial or professional company. 
 
Article 40 
Without prejudice to the penalties stipulated in ar ticles 37, 38 and 39 of this law the court orders 
confiscation of the forged copies or the ones derived from them and destroying them, and order IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
Page 16  
 
 confiscation of the equipments and the instrument s used in committing the crime which can only be 
used in this purpose and close up the company wh ere the forgery crime was committed for not more 
than six months.  The summary of the judgement of incrimination will be published in a daily newspaper or more on the 
account of the judged person. 
 
Article 41 
Without prejudice to the penalties stipulated in this law anyone who violates the provisions of the 
regulations or the orders issued according to this  law will be punished by imprisonment not exceeding 
six months and with payment of fine  or by one of the two penalties. 
 
Section Eight 
General and Final Provisions 
 
Article 42 
 The Ministry in case of non existing inherent or legatee will exercise the literary rights stipulated in 
this law for the sake of preservation of the work in  the form of creation after the expiration of the 
period of the protection of the economic rights stipulated for the work.  
Article 43 
Anyone who takes a photo for someone else by anyway whatsoever, has no right to exhibit, publish or 
distribute the original or its copies without a written permission from the one been photographed 
unless otherwise agreed, unless the publication of the photo took place in open accidents or was related to renowned public or official figures or th at the publication was permitted by public authority 
in favour of public interest provided that the exhib ition of the photo or circulating it will not affect the 
status of the photographed person. 
 
The person in the photo may permit publishing it in ne wspapers or other publication media, even if 
the photographer did not permit, unless agreed otherwise. 
 
Article 44 
In the domain of conflict of laws the provisions of  this law shall apply on the works, performances, 
phonograms, broadcasting programs related to forei gners on conditions of r eciprocity, and without 
prejudice to the provisions of the international agreements applied in the State.  
Article 45 
The Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Waqfs in collaboration with the Minister of Information 
and Culture issues a decision specifying the staff who shall have judicial powers to execute this law. 
 
Article 46 
The Council of Ministers shall issue a decision on  the fees to be charged on the procedures 
determined by the provisions of this law.  IP/N/1/ARE/C/1 
 Page 17 
 
 
 Article 47 
The Minister shall issue the necessary regulations  and decisions for implementing  this law. 
 
Article 48 
 
The Federal Law No 40 of the year 1992 and any othe r provision contrary to the provisions of this 
law, are hereby cancelled.  
Article 49 
The applied regulations and decisions shall be valid as long as they do not contradict with the 
provisions of this law until the new regulations and the implementing decisions are issued, and 
entered into force.  
Article 50 
This law will be published in the Official Gazette a nd enter into force on the date of its  publication. 
 
 
Issued by us in the      Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan 
P
RESIDENTIAL PALACE IN     T HE PRESIDENT OF THE  
Abu Dhabi      United Arab Emirates 
      
On: 20  Rabie Al Akhar  1423 
Corresponding  1 / 7 / 2002 
 
 
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