INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(250944, 24475, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8027 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1016569270-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"442\" />Football is hugely popular across the Middle East. Its popularity has led some to invest in football clubs. When one considers the wide range of agreements between clubs, players, coaches and sponsors, the potential for disputes is clear. Satisfactory resolution of such disputes is not always easily attainable, considering the specialist nature of sports law and general scarcity of specialist in the field. Bespoke judicial bodies and arbitration centres have recently been established in response.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In 2015, the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC) approved the establishment the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC). Specifically, the Generally Assembly of the SAOC approved its Board of Directors’ decision to authorize the SAOC President to take all necessary actions to establish the SSAC. The SSAC aims to contribute to the general development of the sports sector and the resolution of sport related disputes. As a result, sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the resolution of sports related disputes, has seen significant development. There is no doubt that SSAC has contributed to the preservation of the rights of parties, and the broader development of the sports sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This article considers two significant regulatory regimes in the field of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - the Statute of the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC Statute) and the Rules and Procedures of the Centre of Arbitration for Sport (Rules &amp; Procedures). Further, the author considers various divisions of sports arbitration with both the ordinary and the appeal arbitration procedures of the SSAC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Established in 2016, the SSAC is located in Riyadh, the nation’s capital. The SSAC is the highest judicial body for sports-related disputes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specialising in the hearing of any sports-related dispute by arbitration or mediation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The legal basis of the SSAC is the SSAC Statute, its procedural rules, and any resolution issued by the SSAC’s Board of Directors. Further, the SSAC was established in line with the Olympic Charter, the statutes of International Federations, the Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and the Arbitration Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This has led to a strong, and familiar, legal basis for its effective operation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC is composed of five members: one appointed by the SAOC, that individual is the President of the SSAC; one appointed by the Athletes’ Committee of the SAOC; one appointed by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF); and two appointed by the General Assembly of the SAOC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC does not deal with appeals arising from violations of laws of the game, criminal cases arising from sports disputes, or sports disputes that have not exhausted the internal roads via the competent judicial bodies. Final decisions may be appealed to the SSAC within 21 days of notification.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Procedures</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC Statute and the Rules &amp; Procedures are a set of procedural rules that govern SSAC procedures. The SSAC provides for three types of procedure:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Ordinary Arbitration - in which the parties have agreed to refer a sports dispute to the SSAC in accordance with an arbitration clause in a contract, or in cases where both parties agree to refer the dispute to arbitration after the dispute has arisen.</li>\r\n 	<li>Appeal Arbitration - in which a party has filed an appeal against a decision issued by a national association such as SAFF, or a judicial body related to sport, where the statutes or regulations provide an appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li>Mediation - in which each party has agreed to refer a dispute that has arisen, or a potential dispute that may arise, to an SSAC mediator.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Jurisdiction</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC has jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sport. Many types of disputes can be referred to the SSAC, including; disputes arising between the SAOC, associations, clubs, members of the boards, members of the general assembly, players, referees, coaches, intermediaries, registered media representatives, organizers of sports events, sponsoring companies, TV transmission channels, disputes relating to sports doping, contractual disputes (provided the arbitration clause refers the dispute to the SSAC), and any international sports dispute (such as may occur in connection with a foreign player or coach) in which the parties have agreed to resort to the SSAC. The SSAC accordingly enjoys wide jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This stands to generally contribute to the development of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian judiciary.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Divisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">According to Article 24 of the SSAC Statute, the SSAC shall conduct the arbitration in sports-related disputes through the following arbitration divisions:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ordinary Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to resolve sports-related disputes that may arise out of contracts containing an arbitration clause that refers any dispute to the SSAC, or out of any subsequent agreement allowing the referral of disputes to the SSAC and to resolve sports disputes that may arise between the parties to any sports matter (athletes, players, intermediaries, sponsors, administrative staff, technical staff, medical staff, sports clubs, sports federations and Olympic committees), provided that such disputes are not subject to appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Appeals Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to decide on all appeals against final decisions issued by the sports bodies after exhausting all internal legal procedures, except for football decisions, to decide on objections filed against internal decisions issued by the sports bodies, which do not have protest proceedings provided for in their statutes or regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Football Dispute Arbitration Division, which has the competence to decide on all appeals against the decisions issued by the SAFF and its committees after exhausting all its internal legal procedures, in accordance with the SAFF Rules and Regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Special Dispute Division, that may be established by the SSAC to resolve all sports-related disputes referred by the General Sport Authority (GSA).</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Mediation Division, which has the competence to mediate between and assist the concerned parties to reach settlement agreements in contractual disputes.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">By comparison, the SSAC’s divisions exceed the number of divisions of the Foundation of Qatar Sports Arbitration (FQSA), another regional sports arbitration body. The FQSA is composed of three divisions, which are the ordinary arbitration division, the appeals arbitration division and the mediation division. The SSAC is composed of the five divisions described above plus newly created divisions, which are the Special Dispute Division and the Football Dispute Arbitration Division. It is to be inferred that the SSAC created a new division for the sport of football because it is the most popular sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it is accordingly anticipated that most disputes will football related.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Applicable law and Arbitration Language</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In the ordinary, appeals or football arbitration divisions, the arbitration panel must follow all of the regulations and rules of the sports body whose decision is appealed against as a means of fulfilling the principles of justice, equity and the Olympic Charter. In the event that no relevant provision is stated in those regulations, then reference may be made to the statutes or regulations of the respective International Federations (IFs) according to each individual case, however, the parties may, in the ordinary arbitration, choose the law applicable to the dispute. From the above article it can be seen that the SSAC shall apply national laws and regulations, although the international regulations can also be applied in cases where there is no relevant provision to be found in the national laws and regulations. This situation helps the arbitrators to issue decisions in line with decisions at the international level.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Arabic language shall prevail as the language before the SSAC. However, English, or any other language, may be used before SSAC with a certified Arabic translation, upon the approval by the Arbitration Panel.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Expenses and Fees</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Party requesting arbitration will be liable to pay the arbitration fees upon submitting the case to the SSAC. In case the Claimant requests an expedited procedure, then that party shall pay the applicable fees for an expedited procedure as prescribed. All fees are non-refundable. Furthermore, the party requesting arbitration shall pay the tribunal’s administrative expenses, while the losing party bears all such expenses unless an arbitral award states that the parties shall cover the expenses equally. One important rule is that the final arbitral award shall be delivered to the parties only after all the arbitrators’ costs and fees have been paid in full. Evidently, the SSAC has strong conditions in relation to fees and protects the rights of its arbitrators.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Notifications and Communications</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">All notifications, reports and communications shall be made through and by the SSAC General Secretariat. In addition, all correspondence must be made in PDF format and sent to an SSAC approved e-mail address which shall be the only legal way for the SSAC to send/receive correspondence. Moreover, notifications, correspondence and communications served to the parties to the arbitration or their representatives must be made through the e-mail address previously specified by them or any other address determined in writing at a later stage or through an online filing platform. In case the notifications and communications cannot be delivered by email then they can be delivered by mail or by facsimile. Notifications and correspondence served on the parties to the arbitration shall be considered legally received if they are sent to the addressees at their SSAC-approved e-mail addresses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Nature of SSAC Awards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Arbitration awards issued by the SSAC are final and may not be appealed before any other tribunal, whether inside or outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, unless otherwise stated in the SSAC Statute. In sports disputes in which a foreigner is a party, awards may be appealed before the International Sports Federations (IFs) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if the relevant statute of an IF states that an appeal shall be made before such judicial body. In case the contract states that the arbitration is within the jurisdiction of the SSAC, then the SSAC award shall be final and non-appealable before any other authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC represents a significant development in sports law, not only in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but also in the Middle East. Litigants may be represented by any licensed lawyer. To date 24 specialist Saudi and Arab arbitrators have been appointed to the panel of the SSAC. Eight international arbitrators, from the list of the CAS, have been appointed to SSAC arbitral panels, demonstrating international confidence. Its wide jurisdiction, and the range of its specialized divisions, will ensure that sports disputes are resolved with high standards of efficiency and in accordance with the best international sports law dispute resolution standards.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8031\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_224568580.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4429\" height=\"2041\" />Bandar Alhamidani is a Partner and key member of the Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Sports Law and Events Management team practice. Bandar has acted as an Arbitrator before CAS and SSAC. For further information, please contact Bandar Alhamidani (b.alhamidani@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(250945, 24475, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8027 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1016569270-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"442\" />Football is hugely popular across the Middle East. Its popularity has led some to invest in football clubs. When one considers the wide range of agreements between clubs, players, coaches and sponsors, the potential for disputes is clear. Satisfactory resolution of such disputes is not always easily attainable, considering the specialist nature of sports law and general scarcity of specialist in the field. Bespoke judicial bodies and arbitration centres have recently been established in response.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In 2015, the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC) approved the establishment the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC). Specifically, the Generally Assembly of the SAOC approved its Board of Directors’ decision to authorize the SAOC President to take all necessary actions to establish the SSAC. The SSAC aims to contribute to the general development of the sports sector and the resolution of sport related disputes. As a result, sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the resolution of sports related disputes, has seen significant development. There is no doubt that SSAC has contributed to the preservation of the rights of parties, and the broader development of the sports sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This article considers two significant regulatory regimes in the field of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - the Statute of the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC Statute) and the Rules and Procedures of the Centre of Arbitration for Sport (Rules &amp; Procedures). Further, the author considers various divisions of sports arbitration with both the ordinary and the appeal arbitration procedures of the SSAC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Established in 2016, the SSAC is located in Riyadh, the nation’s capital. The SSAC is the highest judicial body for sports-related disputes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specialising in the hearing of any sports-related dispute by arbitration or mediation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The legal basis of the SSAC is the SSAC Statute, its procedural rules, and any resolution issued by the SSAC’s Board of Directors. Further, the SSAC was established in line with the Olympic Charter, the statutes of International Federations, the Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and the Arbitration Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This has led to a strong, and familiar, legal basis for its effective operation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC is composed of five members: one appointed by the SAOC, that individual is the President of the SSAC; one appointed by the Athletes’ Committee of the SAOC; one appointed by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF); and two appointed by the General Assembly of the SAOC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC does not deal with appeals arising from violations of laws of the game, criminal cases arising from sports disputes, or sports disputes that have not exhausted the internal roads via the competent judicial bodies. Final decisions may be appealed to the SSAC within 21 days of notification.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Procedures</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC Statute and the Rules &amp; Procedures are a set of procedural rules that govern SSAC procedures. The SSAC provides for three types of procedure:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Ordinary Arbitration - in which the parties have agreed to refer a sports dispute to the SSAC in accordance with an arbitration clause in a contract, or in cases where both parties agree to refer the dispute to arbitration after the dispute has arisen.</li>\r\n 	<li>Appeal Arbitration - in which a party has filed an appeal against a decision issued by a national association such as SAFF, or a judicial body related to sport, where the statutes or regulations provide an appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li>Mediation - in which each party has agreed to refer a dispute that has arisen, or a potential dispute that may arise, to an SSAC mediator.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Jurisdiction</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC has jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sport. Many types of disputes can be referred to the SSAC, including; disputes arising between the SAOC, associations, clubs, members of the boards, members of the general assembly, players, referees, coaches, intermediaries, registered media representatives, organizers of sports events, sponsoring companies, TV transmission channels, disputes relating to sports doping, contractual disputes (provided the arbitration clause refers the dispute to the SSAC), and any international sports dispute (such as may occur in connection with a foreign player or coach) in which the parties have agreed to resort to the SSAC. The SSAC accordingly enjoys wide jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This stands to generally contribute to the development of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian judiciary.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Divisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">According to Article 24 of the SSAC Statute, the SSAC shall conduct the arbitration in sports-related disputes through the following arbitration divisions:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ordinary Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to resolve sports-related disputes that may arise out of contracts containing an arbitration clause that refers any dispute to the SSAC, or out of any subsequent agreement allowing the referral of disputes to the SSAC and to resolve sports disputes that may arise between the parties to any sports matter (athletes, players, intermediaries, sponsors, administrative staff, technical staff, medical staff, sports clubs, sports federations and Olympic committees), provided that such disputes are not subject to appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Appeals Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to decide on all appeals against final decisions issued by the sports bodies after exhausting all internal legal procedures, except for football decisions, to decide on objections filed against internal decisions issued by the sports bodies, which do not have protest proceedings provided for in their statutes or regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Football Dispute Arbitration Division, which has the competence to decide on all appeals against the decisions issued by the SAFF and its committees after exhausting all its internal legal procedures, in accordance with the SAFF Rules and Regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Special Dispute Division, that may be established by the SSAC to resolve all sports-related disputes referred by the General Sport Authority (GSA).</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Mediation Division, which has the competence to mediate between and assist the concerned parties to reach settlement agreements in contractual disputes.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">By comparison, the SSAC’s divisions exceed the number of divisions of the Foundation of Qatar Sports Arbitration (FQSA), another regional sports arbitration body. The FQSA is composed of three divisions, which are the ordinary arbitration division, the appeals arbitration division and the mediation division. The SSAC is composed of the five divisions described above plus newly created divisions, which are the Special Dispute Division and the Football Dispute Arbitration Division. It is to be inferred that the SSAC created a new division for the sport of football because it is the most popular sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it is accordingly anticipated that most disputes will football related.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Applicable law and Arbitration Language</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In the ordinary, appeals or football arbitration divisions, the arbitration panel must follow all of the regulations and rules of the sports body whose decision is appealed against as a means of fulfilling the principles of justice, equity and the Olympic Charter. In the event that no relevant provision is stated in those regulations, then reference may be made to the statutes or regulations of the respective International Federations (IFs) according to each individual case, however, the parties may, in the ordinary arbitration, choose the law applicable to the dispute. From the above article it can be seen that the SSAC shall apply national laws and regulations, although the international regulations can also be applied in cases where there is no relevant provision to be found in the national laws and regulations. This situation helps the arbitrators to issue decisions in line with decisions at the international level.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Arabic language shall prevail as the language before the SSAC. However, English, or any other language, may be used before SSAC with a certified Arabic translation, upon the approval by the Arbitration Panel.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Expenses and Fees</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Party requesting arbitration will be liable to pay the arbitration fees upon submitting the case to the SSAC. In case the Claimant requests an expedited procedure, then that party shall pay the applicable fees for an expedited procedure as prescribed. All fees are non-refundable. Furthermore, the party requesting arbitration shall pay the tribunal’s administrative expenses, while the losing party bears all such expenses unless an arbitral award states that the parties shall cover the expenses equally. One important rule is that the final arbitral award shall be delivered to the parties only after all the arbitrators’ costs and fees have been paid in full. Evidently, the SSAC has strong conditions in relation to fees and protects the rights of its arbitrators.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Notifications and Communications</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">All notifications, reports and communications shall be made through and by the SSAC General Secretariat. In addition, all correspondence must be made in PDF format and sent to an SSAC approved e-mail address which shall be the only legal way for the SSAC to send/receive correspondence. Moreover, notifications, correspondence and communications served to the parties to the arbitration or their representatives must be made through the e-mail address previously specified by them or any other address determined in writing at a later stage or through an online filing platform. In case the notifications and communications cannot be delivered by email then they can be delivered by mail or by facsimile. Notifications and correspondence served on the parties to the arbitration shall be considered legally received if they are sent to the addressees at their SSAC-approved e-mail addresses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Nature of SSAC Awards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Arbitration awards issued by the SSAC are final and may not be appealed before any other tribunal, whether inside or outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, unless otherwise stated in the SSAC Statute. In sports disputes in which a foreigner is a party, awards may be appealed before the International Sports Federations (IFs) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if the relevant statute of an IF states that an appeal shall be made before such judicial body. In case the contract states that the arbitration is within the jurisdiction of the SSAC, then the SSAC award shall be final and non-appealable before any other authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC represents a significant development in sports law, not only in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but also in the Middle East. Litigants may be represented by any licensed lawyer. To date 24 specialist Saudi and Arab arbitrators have been appointed to the panel of the SSAC. Eight international arbitrators, from the list of the CAS, have been appointed to SSAC arbitral panels, demonstrating international confidence. Its wide jurisdiction, and the range of its specialized divisions, will ensure that sports disputes are resolved with high standards of efficiency and in accordance with the best international sports law dispute resolution standards.</p>\r\n<em>Bandar Alhamidani is a Partner and key member of the Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Sports Law and Events Management team practice. Bandar has acted as an Arbitrator before CAS and SSAC. For further information, please contact Bandar Alhamidani (b.alhamidani@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(250946, 24475, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(250947, 24475, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7952&amp;action=edit');
INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(250948, 24475, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8027 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1016569270-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"442\" />Football is hugely popular across the Middle East. Its popularity has led some to invest in football clubs. When one considers the wide range of agreements between clubs, players, coaches and sponsors, the potential for disputes is clear. Satisfactory resolution of such disputes is not always easily attainable, considering the specialist nature of sports law and general scarcity of specialist in the field. Bespoke judicial bodies and arbitration centres have recently been established in response.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In 2015, the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC) approved the establishment the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC). Specifically, the Generally Assembly of the SAOC approved its Board of Directors’ decision to authorize the SAOC President to take all necessary actions to establish the SSAC. The SSAC aims to contribute to the general development of the sports sector and the resolution of sport related disputes. As a result, sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the resolution of sports related disputes, has seen significant development. There is no doubt that SSAC has contributed to the preservation of the rights of parties, and the broader development of the sports sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This article considers two significant regulatory regimes in the field of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - the Statute of the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC Statute) and the Rules and Procedures of the Centre of Arbitration for Sport (Rules &amp; Procedures). Further, the author considers various divisions of sports arbitration with both the ordinary and the appeal arbitration procedures of the SSAC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Established in 2016, the SSAC is located in Riyadh, the nation’s capital. The SSAC is the highest judicial body for sports-related disputes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specialising in the hearing of any sports-related dispute by arbitration or mediation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The legal basis of the SSAC is the SSAC Statute, its procedural rules, and any resolution issued by the SSAC’s Board of Directors. Further, the SSAC was established in line with the Olympic Charter, the statutes of International Federations, the Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and the Arbitration Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This has led to a strong, and familiar, legal basis for its effective operation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC is composed of five members: one appointed by the SAOC, that individual is the President of the SSAC; one appointed by the Athletes’ Committee of the SAOC; one appointed by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF); and two appointed by the General Assembly of the SAOC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC does not deal with appeals arising from violations of laws of the game, criminal cases arising from sports disputes, or sports disputes that have not exhausted the internal roads via the competent judicial bodies. Final decisions may be appealed to the SSAC within 21 days of notification.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Procedures</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC Statute and the Rules &amp; Procedures are a set of procedural rules that govern SSAC procedures. The SSAC provides for three types of procedure:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Ordinary Arbitration - in which the parties have agreed to refer a sports dispute to the SSAC in accordance with an arbitration clause in a contract, or in cases where both parties agree to refer the dispute to arbitration after the dispute has arisen.</li>\r\n 	<li>Appeal Arbitration - in which a party has filed an appeal against a decision issued by a national association such as SAFF, or a judicial body related to sport, where the statutes or regulations provide an appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li>Mediation - in which each party has agreed to refer a dispute that has arisen, or a potential dispute that may arise, to an SSAC mediator.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Jurisdiction</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC has jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sport. Many types of disputes can be referred to the SSAC, including; disputes arising between the SAOC, associations, clubs, members of the boards, members of the general assembly, players, referees, coaches, intermediaries, registered media representatives, organizers of sports events, sponsoring companies, TV transmission channels, disputes relating to sports doping, contractual disputes (provided the arbitration clause refers the dispute to the SSAC), and any international sports dispute (such as may occur in connection with a foreign player or coach) in which the parties have agreed to resort to the SSAC. The SSAC accordingly enjoys wide jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This stands to generally contribute to the development of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian judiciary.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Divisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">According to Article 24 of the SSAC Statute, the SSAC shall conduct the arbitration in sports-related disputes through the following arbitration divisions:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ordinary Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to resolve sports-related disputes that may arise out of contracts containing an arbitration clause that refers any dispute to the SSAC, or out of any subsequent agreement allowing the referral of disputes to the SSAC and to resolve sports disputes that may arise between the parties to any sports matter (athletes, players, intermediaries, sponsors, administrative staff, technical staff, medical staff, sports clubs, sports federations and Olympic committees), provided that such disputes are not subject to appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Appeals Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to decide on all appeals against final decisions issued by the sports bodies after exhausting all internal legal procedures, except for football decisions, to decide on objections filed against internal decisions issued by the sports bodies, which do not have protest proceedings provided for in their statutes or regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Football Dispute Arbitration Division, which has the competence to decide on all appeals against the decisions issued by the SAFF and its committees after exhausting all its internal legal procedures, in accordance with the SAFF Rules and Regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Special Dispute Division, that may be established by the SSAC to resolve all sports-related disputes referred by the General Sport Authority (GSA).</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Mediation Division, which has the competence to mediate between and assist the concerned parties to reach settlement agreements in contractual disputes.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">By comparison, the SSAC’s divisions exceed the number of divisions of the Foundation of Qatar Sports Arbitration (FQSA), another regional sports arbitration body. The FQSA is composed of three divisions, which are the ordinary arbitration division, the appeals arbitration division and the mediation division. The SSAC is composed of the five divisions described above plus newly created divisions, which are the Special Dispute Division and the Football Dispute Arbitration Division. It is to be inferred that the SSAC created a new division for the sport of football because it is the most popular sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it is accordingly anticipated that most disputes will football related.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Applicable law and Arbitration Language</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In the ordinary, appeals or football arbitration divisions, the arbitration panel must follow all of the regulations and rules of the sports body whose decision is appealed against as a means of fulfilling the principles of justice, equity and the Olympic Charter. In the event that no relevant provision is stated in those regulations, then reference may be made to the statutes or regulations of the respective International Federations (IFs) according to each individual case, however, the parties may, in the ordinary arbitration, choose the law applicable to the dispute. From the above article it can be seen that the SSAC shall apply national laws and regulations, although the international regulations can also be applied in cases where there is no relevant provision to be found in the national laws and regulations. This situation helps the arbitrators to issue decisions in line with decisions at the international level.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Arabic language shall prevail as the language before the SSAC. However, English, or any other language, may be used before SSAC with a certified Arabic translation, upon the approval by the Arbitration Panel.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Expenses and Fees</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Party requesting arbitration will be liable to pay the arbitration fees upon submitting the case to the SSAC. In case the Claimant requests an expedited procedure, then that party shall pay the applicable fees for an expedited procedure as prescribed. All fees are non-refundable. Furthermore, the party requesting arbitration shall pay the tribunal’s administrative expenses, while the losing party bears all such expenses unless an arbitral award states that the parties shall cover the expenses equally. One important rule is that the final arbitral award shall be delivered to the parties only after all the arbitrators’ costs and fees have been paid in full. Evidently, the SSAC has strong conditions in relation to fees and protects the rights of its arbitrators.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Notifications and Communications</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">All notifications, reports and communications shall be made through and by the SSAC General Secretariat. In addition, all correspondence must be made in PDF format and sent to an SSAC approved e-mail address which shall be the only legal way for the SSAC to send/receive correspondence. Moreover, notifications, correspondence and communications served to the parties to the arbitration or their representatives must be made through the e-mail address previously specified by them or any other address determined in writing at a later stage or through an online filing platform. In case the notifications and communications cannot be delivered by email then they can be delivered by mail or by facsimile. Notifications and correspondence served on the parties to the arbitration shall be considered legally received if they are sent to the addressees at their SSAC-approved e-mail addresses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Nature of SSAC Awards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Arbitration awards issued by the SSAC are final and may not be appealed before any other tribunal, whether inside or outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, unless otherwise stated in the SSAC Statute. In sports disputes in which a foreigner is a party, awards may be appealed before the International Sports Federations (IFs) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if the relevant statute of an IF states that an appeal shall be made before such judicial body. In case the contract states that the arbitration is within the jurisdiction of the SSAC, then the SSAC award shall be final and non-appealable before any other authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC represents a significant development in sports law, not only in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but also in the Middle East. Litigants may be represented by any licensed lawyer. To date 24 specialist Saudi and Arab arbitrators have been appointed to the panel of the SSAC. Eight international arbitrators, from the list of the CAS, have been appointed to SSAC arbitral panels, demonstrating international confidence. Its wide jurisdiction, and the range of its specialized divisions, will ensure that sports disputes are resolved with high standards of efficiency and in accordance with the best international sports law dispute resolution standards.</p>\r\n<em>Bandar Alhamidani is a Partner and key member of the Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Sports Law and Events Management team practice. Bandar has acted as an Arbitrator before CAS and SSAC. For further information, please contact Bandar Alhamidani (b.alhamidani@tamimi.com).</em>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8027 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1016569270-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"442\" />Football is hugely popular across the Middle East. Its popularity has led some to invest in football clubs. When one considers the wide range of agreements between clubs, players, coaches and sponsors, the potential for disputes is clear. Satisfactory resolution of such disputes is not always easily attainable, considering the specialist nature of sports law and general scarcity of specialist in the field. Bespoke judicial bodies and arbitration centres have recently been established in response.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In 2015, the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC) approved the establishment the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC). Specifically, the Generally Assembly of the SAOC approved its Board of Directors’ decision to authorize the SAOC President to take all necessary actions to establish the SSAC. The SSAC aims to contribute to the general development of the sports sector and the resolution of sport related disputes. As a result, sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the resolution of sports related disputes, has seen significant development. There is no doubt that SSAC has contributed to the preservation of the rights of parties, and the broader development of the sports sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This article considers two significant regulatory regimes in the field of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - the Statute of the Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre (SSAC Statute) and the Rules and Procedures of the Centre of Arbitration for Sport (Rules &amp; Procedures). Further, the author considers various divisions of sports arbitration with both the ordinary and the appeal arbitration procedures of the SSAC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Saudi Sport Arbitration Centre</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Established in 2016, the SSAC is located in Riyadh, the nation’s capital. The SSAC is the highest judicial body for sports-related disputes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specialising in the hearing of any sports-related dispute by arbitration or mediation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The legal basis of the SSAC is the SSAC Statute, its procedural rules, and any resolution issued by the SSAC’s Board of Directors. Further, the SSAC was established in line with the Olympic Charter, the statutes of International Federations, the Code of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and the Arbitration Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This has led to a strong, and familiar, legal basis for its effective operation.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC is composed of five members: one appointed by the SAOC, that individual is the President of the SSAC; one appointed by the Athletes’ Committee of the SAOC; one appointed by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF); and two appointed by the General Assembly of the SAOC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC does not deal with appeals arising from violations of laws of the game, criminal cases arising from sports disputes, or sports disputes that have not exhausted the internal roads via the competent judicial bodies. Final decisions may be appealed to the SSAC within 21 days of notification.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Procedures</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC Statute and the Rules &amp; Procedures are a set of procedural rules that govern SSAC procedures. The SSAC provides for three types of procedure:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Ordinary Arbitration - in which the parties have agreed to refer a sports dispute to the SSAC in accordance with an arbitration clause in a contract, or in cases where both parties agree to refer the dispute to arbitration after the dispute has arisen.</li>\r\n 	<li>Appeal Arbitration - in which a party has filed an appeal against a decision issued by a national association such as SAFF, or a judicial body related to sport, where the statutes or regulations provide an appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li>Mediation - in which each party has agreed to refer a dispute that has arisen, or a potential dispute that may arise, to an SSAC mediator.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>SSAC Jurisdiction</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC has jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sport. Many types of disputes can be referred to the SSAC, including; disputes arising between the SAOC, associations, clubs, members of the boards, members of the general assembly, players, referees, coaches, intermediaries, registered media representatives, organizers of sports events, sponsoring companies, TV transmission channels, disputes relating to sports doping, contractual disputes (provided the arbitration clause refers the dispute to the SSAC), and any international sports dispute (such as may occur in connection with a foreign player or coach) in which the parties have agreed to resort to the SSAC. The SSAC accordingly enjoys wide jurisdiction to hear any dispute related to sports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This stands to generally contribute to the development of sports law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian judiciary.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Divisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">According to Article 24 of the SSAC Statute, the SSAC shall conduct the arbitration in sports-related disputes through the following arbitration divisions:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ordinary Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to resolve sports-related disputes that may arise out of contracts containing an arbitration clause that refers any dispute to the SSAC, or out of any subsequent agreement allowing the referral of disputes to the SSAC and to resolve sports disputes that may arise between the parties to any sports matter (athletes, players, intermediaries, sponsors, administrative staff, technical staff, medical staff, sports clubs, sports federations and Olympic committees), provided that such disputes are not subject to appeal before the SSAC.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Appeals Arbitration Division, which shall carry out its tasks in accordance with the following powers: to decide on all appeals against final decisions issued by the sports bodies after exhausting all internal legal procedures, except for football decisions, to decide on objections filed against internal decisions issued by the sports bodies, which do not have protest proceedings provided for in their statutes or regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Football Dispute Arbitration Division, which has the competence to decide on all appeals against the decisions issued by the SAFF and its committees after exhausting all its internal legal procedures, in accordance with the SAFF Rules and Regulations.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Special Dispute Division, that may be established by the SSAC to resolve all sports-related disputes referred by the General Sport Authority (GSA).</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Mediation Division, which has the competence to mediate between and assist the concerned parties to reach settlement agreements in contractual disputes.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">By comparison, the SSAC’s divisions exceed the number of divisions of the Foundation of Qatar Sports Arbitration (FQSA), another regional sports arbitration body. The FQSA is composed of three divisions, which are the ordinary arbitration division, the appeals arbitration division and the mediation division. The SSAC is composed of the five divisions described above plus newly created divisions, which are the Special Dispute Division and the Football Dispute Arbitration Division. It is to be inferred that the SSAC created a new division for the sport of football because it is the most popular sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it is accordingly anticipated that most disputes will football related.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Applicable law and Arbitration Language</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In the ordinary, appeals or football arbitration divisions, the arbitration panel must follow all of the regulations and rules of the sports body whose decision is appealed against as a means of fulfilling the principles of justice, equity and the Olympic Charter. In the event that no relevant provision is stated in those regulations, then reference may be made to the statutes or regulations of the respective International Federations (IFs) according to each individual case, however, the parties may, in the ordinary arbitration, choose the law applicable to the dispute. From the above article it can be seen that the SSAC shall apply national laws and regulations, although the international regulations can also be applied in cases where there is no relevant provision to be found in the national laws and regulations. This situation helps the arbitrators to issue decisions in line with decisions at the international level.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Arabic language shall prevail as the language before the SSAC. However, English, or any other language, may be used before SSAC with a certified Arabic translation, upon the approval by the Arbitration Panel.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Arbitration Expenses and Fees</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Party requesting arbitration will be liable to pay the arbitration fees upon submitting the case to the SSAC. In case the Claimant requests an expedited procedure, then that party shall pay the applicable fees for an expedited procedure as prescribed. All fees are non-refundable. Furthermore, the party requesting arbitration shall pay the tribunal’s administrative expenses, while the losing party bears all such expenses unless an arbitral award states that the parties shall cover the expenses equally. One important rule is that the final arbitral award shall be delivered to the parties only after all the arbitrators’ costs and fees have been paid in full. Evidently, the SSAC has strong conditions in relation to fees and protects the rights of its arbitrators.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Notifications and Communications</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">All notifications, reports and communications shall be made through and by the SSAC General Secretariat. In addition, all correspondence must be made in PDF format and sent to an SSAC approved e-mail address which shall be the only legal way for the SSAC to send/receive correspondence. Moreover, notifications, correspondence and communications served to the parties to the arbitration or their representatives must be made through the e-mail address previously specified by them or any other address determined in writing at a later stage or through an online filing platform. In case the notifications and communications cannot be delivered by email then they can be delivered by mail or by facsimile. Notifications and correspondence served on the parties to the arbitration shall be considered legally received if they are sent to the addressees at their SSAC-approved e-mail addresses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Nature of SSAC Awards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Arbitration awards issued by the SSAC are final and may not be appealed before any other tribunal, whether inside or outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, unless otherwise stated in the SSAC Statute. In sports disputes in which a foreigner is a party, awards may be appealed before the International Sports Federations (IFs) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if the relevant statute of an IF states that an appeal shall be made before such judicial body. In case the contract states that the arbitration is within the jurisdiction of the SSAC, then the SSAC award shall be final and non-appealable before any other authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The SSAC represents a significant development in sports law, not only in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but also in the Middle East. Litigants may be represented by any licensed lawyer. To date 24 specialist Saudi and Arab arbitrators have been appointed to the panel of the SSAC. Eight international arbitrators, from the list of the CAS, have been appointed to SSAC arbitral panels, demonstrating international confidence. Its wide jurisdiction, and the range of its specialized divisions, will ensure that sports disputes are resolved with high standards of efficiency and in accordance with the best international sports law dispute resolution standards.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8031\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_224568580.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4429\" height=\"2041\" />Bandar Alhamidani is a Partner and key member of the Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Sports Law and Events Management team practice. Bandar has acted as an Arbitrator before CAS and SSAC. For further information, please contact Bandar Alhamidani (b.alhamidani@tamimi.com).</em>'),
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(251012, 24481, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8032\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_547395022.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"7952\" height=\"3081\" />With Expo 2020 fast approaching, it is important that participating countries and corporates understand the key employment and immigration considerations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This is particularly so given the emphasis by the Expo 2020 leadership on worker welfare including Health and Safety. Indeed, on 19 April 2018, Dubai Municipality and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization held an Expo driven Health, Safety, Quality, and Environment (HSQE) leadership event to ensure that all stakeholders including contractors, sub-contractors, project managers, regulators, and partners were cognisant of their obligations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these key employment considerations are addressed below:</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What employment framework is in place?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Broadly speaking for the purposes of Expo 2020, employees will fall into three main categories: Expo 2020 staff, employees working on the ongoing construction phase and participating countries and companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The venue for Expo 2020 is Dubai South (formerly Dubai World Central), a 140 km2 area in Jebel Ali near to the new Al Maktoum International airport. In addition to the prevailing UAE Federal employment and immigration laws, the Dubai South Free Zone Regulations outline the applicable employment/immigration regulations that apply to entities licensed within the Dubai South.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">For the purposes of Expo, although Dubai South Free Zone Authority shall have a licensing function, a specially formed Expo LLC shall project manage matters. Expo LLC is preparing the structure to regularise the influx of manpower that will be required prior, during and after Expo in order that it can act as a one-stop shop for such matters.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Expo LLC (via each participating country’s assigned Country Manager) will assess the submitted country plans and thereafter will determine a visa quota for each participating country. A similar process will apply for participating companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It will only be possible to obtain visas for employees once the participating country/company is appropriately licensed. As noted, ultimately the license is issued by Dubai South but all participant interface will be with Expo LLC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What immigration and employment restrictions should be borne in mind?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Upon completion of the licensing formalities (see above), it will be possible to obtain visas for a period of up to 18 months prior to the commencement of Expo with the latest date of expiry being 6 months after the event finishes. Accordingly, the longest period that a visa may be issued for Expo purposes is 30 months (18 months prior to the event, 6-month duration of Expo and 6 months’ post Expo). We anticipate that a streamlined process will be put in place to secure visas and Dubai South ID cards are processed promptly.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If a participating country or company requires an individual(s) to access the Expo site prior to the completion of the licensing formalities, it must apply to Expo LLC for approval. An example would be a visiting engineer attending the site to carry out a pavilion feasibility study. For such approval to be granted it will be necessary to set out information such as the reason(s) for and duration of the visit. Expo LLC will thereafter assess such an application before approving or declining access.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The license granted to a participating country shall cease 6 months after Expo. If there is a desire to retain a presence in the UAE post Expo, including the presence of personnel in the UAE, separate corporate structuring advice will require to be sought.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">At present, we do not expect the introduction of additional employment legislation in respect of Expo albeit additional guidelines may be issued to supplant the existing suite of policy guidance.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What arrangements are in place for interns and volunteers?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In respect of interns for the event, they are often based in the UAE with a valid residency visa (eg. via a spouse or family member). In such a cases, the steps involved are limited including the provision of a no objection certificate from the legal sponsor and the requirement to obtain a Dubai South ID card.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Past Expo experience demonstrates that volunteers are a major cornerstone of a successful event. The relevant labour laws in the UAE do not specifically provide for volunteering. Despite that, the UAE government has introduced certain volunteering initiatives earlier this year with the aim of increasing volunteer participation. The government has identified 14 specific areas in which volunteering may take place. We expect that this will adequately cater for the requirements of Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Volunteers must register on a designated volunteer platform online. Express provision has been made for Expo 2020 Dubai volunteers being added to the volunteer platform whereby volunteer opportunities are posted and applicants can apply online to participate.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">We will continue to monitor Expo worker welfare developments with interest and will issue a further article in the likely event that further updates materialise in the coming months.</p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Employment team regularly advises on regional employment matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com.</em>'),
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Indeed, on 19 April 2018, Dubai Municipality and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization held an Expo driven Health, Safety, Quality, and Environment (HSQE) leadership event to ensure that all stakeholders including contractors, sub-contractors, project managers, regulators, and partners were cognisant of their obligations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these key employment considerations are addressed below:</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What employment framework is in place?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Broadly speaking for the purposes of Expo 2020, employees will fall into three main categories: Expo 2020 staff, employees working on the ongoing construction phase and participating countries and companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The venue for Expo 2020 is Dubai South (formerly Dubai World Central), a 140 km2 area in Jebel Ali near to the new Al Maktoum International airport. In addition to the prevailing UAE Federal employment and immigration laws, the Dubai South Free Zone Regulations outline the applicable employment/immigration regulations that apply to entities licensed within the Dubai South.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">For the purposes of Expo, although Dubai South Free Zone Authority shall have a licensing function, a specially formed Expo LLC shall project manage matters. Expo LLC is preparing the structure to regularise the influx of manpower that will be required prior, during and after Expo in order that it can act as a one-stop shop for such matters.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Expo LLC (via each participating country’s assigned Country Manager) will assess the submitted country plans and thereafter will determine a visa quota for each participating country. A similar process will apply for participating companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It will only be possible to obtain visas for employees once the participating country/company is appropriately licensed. As noted, ultimately the license is issued by Dubai South but all participant interface will be with Expo LLC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What immigration and employment restrictions should be borne in mind?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Upon completion of the licensing formalities (see above), it will be possible to obtain visas for a period of up to 18 months prior to the commencement of Expo with the latest date of expiry being 6 months after the event finishes. Accordingly, the longest period that a visa may be issued for Expo purposes is 30 months (18 months prior to the event, 6-month duration of Expo and 6 months’ post Expo). We anticipate that a streamlined process will be put in place to secure visas and Dubai South ID cards are processed promptly.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If a participating country or company requires an individual(s) to access the Expo site prior to the completion of the licensing formalities, it must apply to Expo LLC for approval. An example would be a visiting engineer attending the site to carry out a pavilion feasibility study. For such approval to be granted it will be necessary to set out information such as the reason(s) for and duration of the visit. Expo LLC will thereafter assess such an application before approving or declining access.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The license granted to a participating country shall cease 6 months after Expo. If there is a desire to retain a presence in the UAE post Expo, including the presence of personnel in the UAE, separate corporate structuring advice will require to be sought.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">At present, we do not expect the introduction of additional employment legislation in respect of Expo albeit additional guidelines may be issued to supplant the existing suite of policy guidance.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What arrangements are in place for interns and volunteers?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In respect of interns for the event, they are often based in the UAE with a valid residency visa (eg. via a spouse or family member). In such a cases, the steps involved are limited including the provision of a no objection certificate from the legal sponsor and the requirement to obtain a Dubai South ID card.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Past Expo experience demonstrates that volunteers are a major cornerstone of a successful event. The relevant labour laws in the UAE do not specifically provide for volunteering. Despite that, the UAE government has introduced certain volunteering initiatives earlier this year with the aim of increasing volunteer participation. The government has identified 14 specific areas in which volunteering may take place. We expect that this will adequately cater for the requirements of Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Volunteers must register on a designated volunteer platform online. Express provision has been made for Expo 2020 Dubai volunteers being added to the volunteer platform whereby volunteer opportunities are posted and applicants can apply online to participate.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">We will continue to monitor Expo worker welfare developments with interest and will issue a further article in the likely event that further updates materialise in the coming months.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Employment team regularly advises on regional employment matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com.</em>'),
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(251016, 24481, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With Expo 2020 fast approaching, it is important that participating countries and corporates understand the key employment and immigration considerations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This is particularly so given the emphasis by the Expo 2020 leadership on worker welfare including Health and Safety. Indeed, on 19 April 2018, Dubai Municipality and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization held an Expo driven Health, Safety, Quality, and Environment (HSQE) leadership event to ensure that all stakeholders including contractors, sub-contractors, project managers, regulators, and partners were cognisant of their obligations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these key employment considerations are addressed below:</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What employment framework is in place?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Broadly speaking for the purposes of Expo 2020, employees will fall into three main categories: Expo 2020 staff, employees working on the ongoing construction phase and participating countries and companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The venue for Expo 2020 is Dubai South (formerly Dubai World Central), a 140 km2 area in Jebel Ali near to the new Al Maktoum International airport. In addition to the prevailing UAE Federal employment and immigration laws, the Dubai South Free Zone Regulations outline the applicable employment/immigration regulations that apply to entities licensed within the Dubai South.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">For the purposes of Expo, although Dubai South Free Zone Authority shall have a licensing function, a specially formed Expo LLC shall project manage matters. Expo LLC is preparing the structure to regularise the influx of manpower that will be required prior, during and after Expo in order that it can act as a one-stop shop for such matters.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Expo LLC (via each participating country’s assigned Country Manager) will assess the submitted country plans and thereafter will determine a visa quota for each participating country. A similar process will apply for participating companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It will only be possible to obtain visas for employees once the participating country/company is appropriately licensed. As noted, ultimately the license is issued by Dubai South but all participant interface will be with Expo LLC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What immigration and employment restrictions should be borne in mind?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Upon completion of the licensing formalities (see above), it will be possible to obtain visas for a period of up to 18 months prior to the commencement of Expo with the latest date of expiry being 6 months after the event finishes. Accordingly, the longest period that a visa may be issued for Expo purposes is 30 months (18 months prior to the event, 6-month duration of Expo and 6 months’ post Expo). We anticipate that a streamlined process will be put in place to secure visas and Dubai South ID cards are processed promptly.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If a participating country or company requires an individual(s) to access the Expo site prior to the completion of the licensing formalities, it must apply to Expo LLC for approval. An example would be a visiting engineer attending the site to carry out a pavilion feasibility study. For such approval to be granted it will be necessary to set out information such as the reason(s) for and duration of the visit. Expo LLC will thereafter assess such an application before approving or declining access.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The license granted to a participating country shall cease 6 months after Expo. If there is a desire to retain a presence in the UAE post Expo, including the presence of personnel in the UAE, separate corporate structuring advice will require to be sought.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">At present, we do not expect the introduction of additional employment legislation in respect of Expo albeit additional guidelines may be issued to supplant the existing suite of policy guidance.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What arrangements are in place for interns and volunteers?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In respect of interns for the event, they are often based in the UAE with a valid residency visa (eg. via a spouse or family member). In such a cases, the steps involved are limited including the provision of a no objection certificate from the legal sponsor and the requirement to obtain a Dubai South ID card.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Past Expo experience demonstrates that volunteers are a major cornerstone of a successful event. The relevant labour laws in the UAE do not specifically provide for volunteering. Despite that, the UAE government has introduced certain volunteering initiatives earlier this year with the aim of increasing volunteer participation. The government has identified 14 specific areas in which volunteering may take place. We expect that this will adequately cater for the requirements of Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Volunteers must register on a designated volunteer platform online. Express provision has been made for Expo 2020 Dubai volunteers being added to the volunteer platform whereby volunteer opportunities are posted and applicants can apply online to participate.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">We will continue to monitor Expo worker welfare developments with interest and will issue a further article in the likely event that further updates materialise in the coming months.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Employment team regularly advises on regional employment matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com.</em>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8032\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_547395022.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"7952\" height=\"3081\" />With Expo 2020 fast approaching, it is important that participating countries and corporates understand the key employment and immigration considerations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">This is particularly so given the emphasis by the Expo 2020 leadership on worker welfare including Health and Safety. Indeed, on 19 April 2018, Dubai Municipality and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization held an Expo driven Health, Safety, Quality, and Environment (HSQE) leadership event to ensure that all stakeholders including contractors, sub-contractors, project managers, regulators, and partners were cognisant of their obligations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these key employment considerations are addressed below:</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What employment framework is in place?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Broadly speaking for the purposes of Expo 2020, employees will fall into three main categories: Expo 2020 staff, employees working on the ongoing construction phase and participating countries and companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The venue for Expo 2020 is Dubai South (formerly Dubai World Central), a 140 km2 area in Jebel Ali near to the new Al Maktoum International airport. In addition to the prevailing UAE Federal employment and immigration laws, the Dubai South Free Zone Regulations outline the applicable employment/immigration regulations that apply to entities licensed within the Dubai South.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">For the purposes of Expo, although Dubai South Free Zone Authority shall have a licensing function, a specially formed Expo LLC shall project manage matters. Expo LLC is preparing the structure to regularise the influx of manpower that will be required prior, during and after Expo in order that it can act as a one-stop shop for such matters.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Expo LLC (via each participating country’s assigned Country Manager) will assess the submitted country plans and thereafter will determine a visa quota for each participating country. A similar process will apply for participating companies.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It will only be possible to obtain visas for employees once the participating country/company is appropriately licensed. As noted, ultimately the license is issued by Dubai South but all participant interface will be with Expo LLC.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What immigration and employment restrictions should be borne in mind?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Upon completion of the licensing formalities (see above), it will be possible to obtain visas for a period of up to 18 months prior to the commencement of Expo with the latest date of expiry being 6 months after the event finishes. Accordingly, the longest period that a visa may be issued for Expo purposes is 30 months (18 months prior to the event, 6-month duration of Expo and 6 months’ post Expo). We anticipate that a streamlined process will be put in place to secure visas and Dubai South ID cards are processed promptly.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If a participating country or company requires an individual(s) to access the Expo site prior to the completion of the licensing formalities, it must apply to Expo LLC for approval. An example would be a visiting engineer attending the site to carry out a pavilion feasibility study. For such approval to be granted it will be necessary to set out information such as the reason(s) for and duration of the visit. Expo LLC will thereafter assess such an application before approving or declining access.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The license granted to a participating country shall cease 6 months after Expo. If there is a desire to retain a presence in the UAE post Expo, including the presence of personnel in the UAE, separate corporate structuring advice will require to be sought.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">At present, we do not expect the introduction of additional employment legislation in respect of Expo albeit additional guidelines may be issued to supplant the existing suite of policy guidance.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>What arrangements are in place for interns and volunteers?</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In respect of interns for the event, they are often based in the UAE with a valid residency visa (eg. via a spouse or family member). In such a cases, the steps involved are limited including the provision of a no objection certificate from the legal sponsor and the requirement to obtain a Dubai South ID card.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Past Expo experience demonstrates that volunteers are a major cornerstone of a successful event. The relevant labour laws in the UAE do not specifically provide for volunteering. Despite that, the UAE government has introduced certain volunteering initiatives earlier this year with the aim of increasing volunteer participation. The government has identified 14 specific areas in which volunteering may take place. We expect that this will adequately cater for the requirements of Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Volunteers must register on a designated volunteer platform online. Express provision has been made for Expo 2020 Dubai volunteers being added to the volunteer platform whereby volunteer opportunities are posted and applicants can apply online to participate.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">We will continue to monitor Expo worker welfare developments with interest and will issue a further article in the likely event that further updates materialise in the coming months.</p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s Employment team regularly advises on regional employment matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com.</em>'),
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(251080, 24487, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"1024\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(251081, 24487, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
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(251084, 24487, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"1024\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
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(251148, 24493, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(251149, 24493, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"1024\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
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INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(251152, 24493, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"1024\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Copyright to the Event Concept</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Maintaining Secrecy</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Documenting and Recording</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
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(251223, 24500, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" />The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>');
INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(251224, 24500, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(251225, 24500, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(251226, 24500, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7956&amp;action=edit'),
(251227, 24500, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" />The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
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(251326, 24511, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-8040 alignleft\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_733922404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" />Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>'),
(251327, 24511, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>'),
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(251330, 24511, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-8040 alignleft\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_733922404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" />Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>'),
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(251376, 24515, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8040 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_733922404-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" />Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>'),
(251377, 24515, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-8040 alignleft\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_733922404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" />Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>'),
(251378, 24515, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(251379, 24515, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7957&amp;action=edit'),
(251380, 24515, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-8040 alignleft\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_733922404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" />Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8040 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_733922404-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" />Bahrain’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data was published on 19 July 2018, and will come into effect on 1 August 2019. The Law will require a variety of changes to the way businesses process personal data in Bahrain or about residents of Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law provides a considerable lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Until now, and with one exception (namely, Qatar), none of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states had a modern, nationally applicable data protection law. Legal issues relating to privacy and data protection are typically analysed in terms of general, and ill-fitting, criminal provisions relating to the unauthorized disclosure of secrets, or – in appropriate circumstances - industry-specific obligations relating to healthcare or credit data, or telecommunications sector subscriber data.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law is generally composed of 60 articles divided into three broad sections or ‘titles’. These are:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 1: Processing Provisions – Including definitions and general rules for the legality of processing, controls of data processing and transfer, statements as well as the rights of the data holder.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 2: Data Protection Authority - Including provisions relating to the establishment of the regulator, and its rights and responsibilities.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Title 3: Accountability of the data manager (data controller) and data processor – Including provisions relating to accountability to the regulator, investigation procedures, civil and criminal liability, and penalties for violation.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we consider some key areas addressed in the Data Protection Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s Data Protection Law describes the legal protection of personal privacy as among the main constitutional rights of the person, and notes that it should be protected, particularly in the context of the increasing use of electronic/digital means for processing information.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law applies to:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Every individual not residing normally in Bahrain or having a workplace in Bahrain, and every legal person (corporate) not having a place of business in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where such persons are processing data using means available in Bahrain, except where such processing means are solely for the purpose of passing data through Bahrain.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this latter scenario, the legal person (corporate) is required to appoint an authorized representative in Bahrain, and notify the Authority of such appointment. This provision would appear to affect, for example, corporate customers of cloud service providers, where the customer is based outside Bahrain, and the services being provided to the customer are being provided from data centres located in Bahrain.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Criminal provisions</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law criminalizes a variety of acts that would, at most, be the subject of administrative penalties in data protection laws elsewhere. Penalties generally comprise up to one year in prison and/or a fine of between BHD1,000 and BHD20,000 (between about USD 2,600 to about USD 53,000) (or a fine only in the case of corporate entities). The following are examples of activities that attract criminal penalties under the Law:</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing sensitive personal data in violation of the provision specifying requirements for processing sensitive personal data;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">transferring personal data outside Bahrain contrary to the provisions specifying requirements for transfers to jurisdictions that provide an adequate level of data protection, and associated exceptions;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">processing personal data without notifying the Authority in accordance with the provision that sets out the obligation to notify the Authority before commencing any data processing activities (except where certain exceptions apply), or failing to update such notification to the Authority;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Processing personal data contrary to the provision that requires prior authorization from the Authority before processing personal data in certain circumstances;</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Providing false or misleading information to the Authority or to a data subject, or withholding relevant information from the Authority, or otherwise hindering the Authority’s work; and</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Disclosing any data or information accessed due to work, or using the same for own benefit or for the benefit of others unreasonably and in violation of the provisions of this law.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Security considerations</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Generally, the security of processing provisions, and the confidentiality provisions, appear to be fairly standard.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to apply technical and organizational measures capable of protecting personal data against unintentional or unauthorized destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, disclosure or access, or any other form of processing. The measures adopted need to be appropriate, bearing in mind the nature of the data in question and the risks associated with processing it. The Law also indicates that ‘state-of-the-art’ technological protection measures should be adopted, but this is tempered by reference to the costs arising from use of such technology.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, the Law contemplates the issuance of a regulation specifying requirements that technical and organisational measures must satisfy. It also provides scope for specific requirements to be prescribed in such regulations.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Data controllers are required to maintain documentation that reflects the technical and organizational measures adopted. This documentation must be available for viewing by the parties concerned (presumably, including data subjects), as well as the Authority, any data processors, and the data controller itself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">With regard to processing by data processors, the Law requires data controllers to engage only data processors who provide sufficient guarantees regarding the application of technical and organisational measures. Importantly, there is an obligation on data controllers to take steps to verify compliance with such measures, and to enter into a written contract with the data processor requiring that the data processor shall only process data in accordance with the instructions of the data controller, and in accordance with the data controller’s requirements with regard to security and confidentiality.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">There does not appear to be any specific obligation to notify the Authority in the event of a data breach incident. It is possible that this level of detail might be addressed in the regulations, or that the Authority is expected to address breaches only in the event that they become aware of them, and the circumstances indicate a breach of the obligation to use suitable technical and organizational security measures.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Data protection supervisor</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Law contemplates a role of ‘Data Protection Supervisor’ (which is not a data protection officer) intended to act as an independent and impartial intermediary between the data controller and the Authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The data protection supervisor will help the data controller fulfil its rights and obligations, and coordinate between the data controller and the Authority. It will also be required to verify the data controller’s processing in compliance with the law, alert the data controller to any apparent non-compliance to enable the issue to be addressed, and alert the Authority where such non-compliance has not been addressed within a specified timeframe. The data protection supervisor will also be required to maintain a register of the data controller’s processing operations that the data controller must notify the Authority, and update the Authority of the same on a monthly basis. (If no data protection supervisor is appointed, then the data controller is required to do this itself.)</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The qualifications and requirements for registration as a data protection supervisor will be officially issued, and data protection supervisors will need to be registered on a register maintained by the Authority. The requirement to appoint a data protection supervisor is optional, although it may be made compulsory for specific categories of data controllers.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The concept of a data protection supervisor has the potential to result in a whole new industry in the Bahrain market. The regulations setting out the requirements for the registration of data protection supervisors may shed greater light on what is anticipated, in terms of who might be able to fulfil such roles. The most natural development may be for the role to be filled by consulting/audit firms with expertise in data protection related issues.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Bahrain’s new Data Protection Law will require a great deal of attention from businesses operating in Bahrain. Data protection has not been a high priority topic for most businesses in Bahrain, with the limited exception of international entities subject to data protection requirements in other jurisdictions in which they operate. While the publication of the new Law will result in some degree of a lead-in period within which entities subject to the Law will need to comply, the fact that the Law creates criminal offences means that compliance is all the more important and should be treated as a high priority.</p>'),
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(251471, 24526, 'PostID', '7958'),
(251472, 24526, 'PostTitle', 'Amended Arbitration Legislative Framework in Jordan'),
(251473, 24526, 'PostStatus', 'draft'),
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(251475, 24526, 'PostDate', '2018-07-31 18:33:08'),
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(251479, 24526, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8039 size-large\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1032816913-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" />On 29 March 2018, His Highness King Abdullah Al Thani Ibn Al Hussein promulgated Law No. (16) for the year 2018, a law amending the Jordanian Arbitration Law No. (31) for the year 2001 (the \"Amended Law\").</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law introduces new and anticipated changes to the procedural framework of arbitrations seated in Jordan, many of which can be traced in the UNCITRAL Model Law as amended in 2006. Further, the Amended Law provides for much needed clarity on some of the ambiguities witnessed under the previous regime.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we highlight the key features of the Amended Law and discuss some of their practical implications on the conduct of arbitral proceedings in Jordan.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Scope of Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law came into force thirty (30) days after its publication in the Official Gazette No. 5513/2018 dated 2 May 2018. The Amended Law will apply to arbitrations seated in Jordan, as well as arbitrations in which the parties agree to subject such arbitration proceedings to the Amended Law, and irrespective of the nature of the legal relationship giving rise to the dispute.</p>\r\nTo this end, the Amended Law defines the \"<em>Seat of Arbitration</em>\" as \"<em>the country agreed upon by the parties to the arbitration to be the seat of the arbitral proceedings, the country whose applicable arbitration law is agreed upon by the parties to apply to the arbitral proceedings or the country selected by the arbitral tribunal as its seat in the absence of an agreement.</em>\"\r\n\r\nThe Amended Law further defines the \"Competent Judge\" as \"<em> The head of the Competent Court or any of its judges as authorized by the head of the Competent Court in writing</em>.\"\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It is worth noting that the Amended Law will not have a retroactive effect. As such, it will only apply to arbitral proceedings and/or court cases that have commenced or are currently ongoing and/or being examined before arbitral tribunals and/or courts. For purposes of determining the commencement date of arbitral proceedings, the Amended law, under article 26, considers the date of the formal constitution of the arbitral tribunal as the date of commencement of the arbitral proceedings.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Interpretation</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">An important addition reflected in the Amended Law is the explicit reference to legal principles and guidelines of international arbitration, as well as international trade customs, as sources of interpretation of the provisions of the Jordan Arbitration Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Arbitration Agreement</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law has brings changes to the rules governing arbitration agreements. While the Amended Law has reconfirmed the writing requirement for the validity of arbitration agreements, it specified that the writing requirement can be satisfied through any form, including electronic correspondence. A welcome change in the Amended Law lies in the explicit admission of arbitration agreements incorporated by reference. There are indeed instances where an arbitration agreement may be incorporated by reference to an arbitration agreement contained in another document. Under the previous regime, an arbitration agreement incorporated by reference was regarded as valid provided the reference itself clearly considered the arbitration agreement to form part of the main agreement entered into between the parties. The Amended Law eases the conditions of validity of arbitration agreements by removing the requirement for an explicit acknowledgment that the arbitration agreement incorporated by reference forms part of the main agreement. Under the regime of the Amended Law, any reference or indication contained in the main agreement concluded between the parties to another document containing an arbitration agreement is deemed to be analogous to a written arbitration clause under the original agreement. This is particularly useful in instances where parties sign specific terms and conditions which contain a reference to general terms and conditions containing an arbitration agreement.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also stipulates that prior arbitration agreements in employment contracts and consumer contracts concluded on preprinted forms shall be null and void. This amendment, in particular the ban on arbitrating any dispute that may arise out of an employment contract, is in line with the most recent and prevailing decisions of the Jordanian courts.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Arbitral Tribunal</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law introduces provisions relating to the number of arbitrators, their appointment and the designation of the presiding tribunal member in events where the disputing parties are 3 or more. According to Article (16) of the Amended Law, an agreement on the appointment and number of arbitrators as well as on the mechanism of appointing of the presiding member by the disputing parties shall always take precedence and prevail however, in absence of any such agreement: (i) the Competent Judge will appoint the arbitrators if their number was agreed upon between the disputing parties and will also name the presiding tribunal member and; (ii) Where the number of arbitrators and their method of appointment is not agreed upon by the disputing parties, the arbitral tribunal must then be comprised of 3 members appointed by the Competent Judge who will also name the presiding tribunal member and; (iii) if the number of arbitrators and their method of appointment was known, the appointed arbitrators must select the presiding member by a majority decision, if the majority was not achieved, the Competent Judge will name the presiding member pursuant to a request by any of the disputing parties. The Amended Law grants any of the disputing parties the right to resort to the Competent Judge in event of a disagreement as to any of the matters pertaining to the appointment of arbitrators who, in turn, must rule as necessary to resolve such disagreement. Finally in this regard, the Amended Law placed a duty on the Competent Judge, when selecting an arbitrator, (i) to consider the requirements of the law and the parties’ pre-set conditions in this regard and; (ii) to accelerate the process of decision making when selecting an arbitrator. Under the previous regime, decisions by the Competent Court appointing an arbitrator(s) were not subject to appeal before a higher court and were to be considered final. The Amended Law, in this regard, implicitly allows for an appeal of the Competent Judge’s decision by deleting, from the amended relevant article, the previous explicit text on the appeal constraints.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As for the challenge of arbitrators, the Amended Law placed a duty on both the prospective and appointed arbitrators to be impartial and independent. The Amended Law, in line with the UNCITRAL Model Law, places a continuing duty on the arbitrators to remain impartial and independent throughout the arbitral proceedings and imposes a duty on the arbitrators to disclose any such circumstances that may cause their impartiality or independence to be impaired.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Under the Amended Law, the application for the disqualification of an arbitrator by a party must be based on serious grounds. In addition, the procedures for requesting an arbitrator to be recused have been amended. Under the previous law, a request challenging the impartiality and independence of an arbitrator was to be submitted to the court of appeal; however, under the regime, the same request must now be submitted to the arbitral tribunal itself, which, in turn, must refer the request along with the challenged arbitrator’s response to the court of appeal if the challenged arbitrator does not recuse himself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In line with the UNCITRAL Model Law, the Amended Law contains a special provision with regards to placing an obligation on the arbitral tribunal to act fairly and impartially and ensure that parties have an equal opportunity to present their case. The arbitral tribunal must also avoid any unjustified delay or unnecessary expenses in order to resolve the dispute in a timely manner \"<em>for the sake of achieving a fair and urgent means for dispute resolution.</em>\"</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In relation to the arbitral tribunal’s fees, the Amended Law introduced a new provision regarding the fees of the arbitral tribunal. Pursuant to such a provision, and in absence of an agreement between the disputing parties and the arbitral tribunal on the fees, the arbitral tribunal shall determine its own fees and order the disputing parties to each pay their share equally. A very important, yet lopsided addition under the Amended Law lies in a clause granting the arbitral tribunal the right to order the compliant party to pay the defaulting party’s share of the arbitral tribunal fees in events where a disputing party defaults in paying their share of the tribunal fees or any expenses of arbitration. Any decision issued by the arbitral tribunal concerning its fees may now be challenged through an appeal before the court of appeal within (15) days from the date of notification of the parties of the same.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Arbitral Proceedings</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law now allows Jordanian lawyers to \"<em>engage any non-Jordanian lawyer or any other professional and experienced person, if the contract subject matter of the dispute referred to arbitration is subject to the provisions of a foreign law.</em>\" Such an addition on the recourse to foreign legal counsel, as well as other relevant professionals to instances where the contract at issue in an arbitration is governed by the provisions of a foreign law, and by a means of assistance to the Jordanian lawyer, is favorable. It is regrettable, however, that the Amended Law did not make any provisions as to permitting non-Jordanian representation in arbitral proceedings where the underlying contract is governed by Jordanian law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law reconfirmed that Arabic shall be the default language applicable to the arbitral proceedings unless the parties agree otherwise. The arbitral tribunal is also entrusted with the power to determine the application of another language.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It is also worth noting that the Amended Law now allows the parties, at any time during the arbitral proceedings, to submit additional evidence to support their claim/defense unless the arbitral tribunal disapproves such submission. This new addition to the Amended Law was not provided for under the previous regime as the parties were only allowed to amend their grounds of defense and their final requests but were not permitted to submit any additional evidence.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also introduces major and welcomed changes to the means through which arbitration hearings and proceedings can now be conducted. Under the Amended Law, the arbitral tribunal is granted greater leeway in holding the hearings in a manner the tribunal sees fit so long as the hearings and the meetings can be documented in writing. The Amended Law introduced various provisions recognizing contemporary means of communication as it now permitted the arbitral tribunal to use any new method of communication to conduct any arbitration procedure, including the use of different telecommunication technological methods, such as videoconferencing for the purpose of hearing witness testimony. Such cost and time effective measures will undoubtedly contribute to the efficiency of the proceedings.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also reiterated the acceptance of affidavits, i.e., sworn statements of testimony, as evidence in arbitral proceedings. However, the Amended Law provided that should the opponent wish to cross examine the witness and the latter fails to appear before the arbitral tribunal, the entire affidavit must be ruled out as evidence.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As for experts, the Amended Law sets new conditions for the admission of expert reports where any of the parties to the arbitration submits such reports with their documentary evidence. For the expert report to be admissible under the Amended Law, the submitting party must disclose the expert appointment letter, the scope of work/assignment of the expert, and the fees that were paid to them. It is mandatory, under the Amended Law, to call the expert for questioning at the request of a party or should the tribunal so decide. As for the appointment of the expert, the Amended Law introduces an option for the appointment of a juristic person (company) as an expert as opposed to solely an individual as was the case under the previous regime.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Interim and Conservatory Measures</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Where either party wishes to apply for interim or conservatory measures, the Amended Law, like the previous law, allows the arbitrating parties to do so prior to the commencement of arbitral proceedings or during such proceedings in accordance with the relevant articles of the Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures No. (24) for the year 1988.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures No. (24) for the year 1988 provides that a claimant may apply to the judge of summary proceedings for a motion to attach and/or freeze property of the defendant party as a precautionary measure either prior to the filing of the substantive lawsuit or along with it. Where the motion is made prior to filing the substantive lawsuit, the Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures stipulates that the substantive lawsuit must be filed within a period of eight (8) days after procuring the decision to attach/freeze the properties of the defendant, otherwise any or all (where applicable) attached properties will be released.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">For the purpose of upholding the attachment of property after the (8) day period, the Amended Law now considers a notice to appoint an arbitrator served by the claimant upon the respondent along with the appointed arbitrator’s written confirmation of acceptance to be sufficient as a time barring event for the running of the (8) day period mentioned under the Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures. Such a trigger event to the confirmation of the attachment may cause some practical challenges as often the appointment of an arbitrator comes at a later stage in the proceedings, after the request for arbitration. In some urgent cases, the need to sustain the attachment would have to occur prior to the appointment of an arbitrator. Also, in some instances, the power to appoint an arbitrator, and depending on the agreement among the parties, lies outside of the parties, through for example an appointing authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Award</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As for the time limit within which the arbitral tribunal must render its final award, the previous regime provides that such time limit shall start to run from the date of the commencement of the arbitral proceedings until the lapse of a twelve (12) month period. The extension provided for was for only another six (6) months. The Amended Law provides for the same period; however, the time limit shall start to run from the date of the constitution of the arbitral tribunal. The arbitral tribunal may in any event extend the time limit for a period of twelve (12) months or as otherwise agreed by the parties.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In relation to the final arbitration award, the Amended Law provides that the final award must be issued unanimously or by a majority decision. In the absence of a majority, the parties may agree that the award be made by the president of the arbitral tribunal alone. If the parties do not agree as to how the award will be issued when a majority is not reached the arbitral proceedings shall cease and terminate.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Where any part of the claim was acknowledged by the opponent, the claimant may procure a final award for the acknowledged part of the claim. This provision was not provided for under the previous law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">While the Amended Law did not introduce significant changes to the interpretation and correction of the final award, it provides that the explanatory award and the corrected award must be presented to the court before which a party files for a set aside action. The Amended Law also provides for the possibility to submit the correction or interpretation application to the court of appeal in the event that it is not possible for the arbitral tribunal to convene for making that correction or interpretation. Also, with regards to any additional awards made by the arbitral tribunal in connection with any missed part of the claim, the additional award shall take the form of an addendum and shall constitute part of the award. The additional award must also be submitted to court where a party files for a set aside action.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Award Set Aside and Enforcement</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law introduces a major significant change with regards to set aside actions. Under the previous regime, a set aside action could only be submitted to the court of appeal and its decision to set aside could be appealed before the cassation court. However, in the event that the court of appeal dismissed the set aside action and decided to uphold the arbitration award, such a decision could not be appealed against. The Amended Law stipulates that the only competent court for the purpose of filing a set aside action is now the cassation court, thereby reducing the stages of appeal to only one in the event that the cassation court rules to set aside the arbitration award. Therefore, should the cassation court rule to set aside the award, neither party further may appeal the decision. This is in contrast to the previous law under which there were two steps to an appeal since a set aside order by the court of appeal was subject to appeal before the cassation court.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Previously, the arbitration law provided that a decision to set aside an arbitration award would consequently render the arbitration agreement nullified as it results in litigation unless both parties agree on further arbitration. The Amended Law however provides that a decision to set aside an arbitration award does not affect the arbitration agreement unless such an agreement was in itself null void. This consequently means that the disputing parties, in the event an arbitration award is set aside, must resort again to arbitration as a method of dispute resolution.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also transferred the role of examining enforcement applications to the sole jurisdiction of the cassation court as opposed to the court of appeal as was the case under the previous law. The Amended Law has withdrawn a party’s right to appeal the court’s decision rejecting enforcement due to incorrect service of summons or due to impossibility of enforcement when the award itself contravenes with public order.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As part of Jordan’s efforts to stimulate its economy and attract foreign investments, the Amended Law provides a comprehensive reform to the legislative framework of arbitration in Jordan. It undoubtedly provides a more modern and secure means of dispute resolution through arbitration in line with most internationally recognised arbitration guidelines and practices. With the Amended Law, arbitrating in Jordan is expected to gain new traction.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8043\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Screen-Shot-2018-07-31-at-6.31.28-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"3994\" height=\"1378\" />For further information please contact Sara Koleilat-Aranjo (s.aranjo@tamimi.com) or Dana Al Shawa (d.alshawwa@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(251480, 24526, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">On 29 March 2018, His Highness King Abdullah Al Thani Ibn Al Hussein promulgated Law No. (16) for the year 2018, a law amending the Jordanian Arbitration Law No. (31) for the year 2001 (the \"Amended Law\").</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law introduces new and anticipated changes to the procedural framework of arbitrations seated in Jordan, many of which can be traced in the UNCITRAL Model Law as amended in 2006. Further, the Amended Law provides for much needed clarity on some of the ambiguities witnessed under the previous regime.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In this article, we highlight the key features of the Amended Law and discuss some of their practical implications on the conduct of arbitral proceedings in Jordan.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Scope of Application</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law came into force thirty (30) days after its publication in the Official Gazette No. 5513/2018 dated 2 May 2018. The Amended Law will apply to arbitrations seated in Jordan, as well as arbitrations in which the parties agree to subject such arbitration proceedings to the Amended Law, and irrespective of the nature of the legal relationship giving rise to the dispute.</p>\r\nTo this end, the Amended Law defines the \"<em>Seat of Arbitration</em>\" as \"<em>the country agreed upon by the parties to the arbitration to be the seat of the arbitral proceedings, the country whose applicable arbitration law is agreed upon by the parties to apply to the arbitral proceedings or the country selected by the arbitral tribunal as its seat in the absence of an agreement.</em>\"\r\n\r\nThe Amended Law further defines the \"Competent Judge\" as \"<em> The head of the Competent Court or any of its judges as authorized by the head of the Competent Court in writing</em>.\"\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It is worth noting that the Amended Law will not have a retroactive effect. As such, it will only apply to arbitral proceedings and/or court cases that have commenced or are currently ongoing and/or being examined before arbitral tribunals and/or courts. For purposes of determining the commencement date of arbitral proceedings, the Amended law, under article 26, considers the date of the formal constitution of the arbitral tribunal as the date of commencement of the arbitral proceedings.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Interpretation</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">An important addition reflected in the Amended Law is the explicit reference to legal principles and guidelines of international arbitration, as well as international trade customs, as sources of interpretation of the provisions of the Jordan Arbitration Law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Arbitration Agreement</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law has brings changes to the rules governing arbitration agreements. While the Amended Law has reconfirmed the writing requirement for the validity of arbitration agreements, it specified that the writing requirement can be satisfied through any form, including electronic correspondence. A welcome change in the Amended Law lies in the explicit admission of arbitration agreements incorporated by reference. There are indeed instances where an arbitration agreement may be incorporated by reference to an arbitration agreement contained in another document. Under the previous regime, an arbitration agreement incorporated by reference was regarded as valid provided the reference itself clearly considered the arbitration agreement to form part of the main agreement entered into between the parties. The Amended Law eases the conditions of validity of arbitration agreements by removing the requirement for an explicit acknowledgment that the arbitration agreement incorporated by reference forms part of the main agreement. Under the regime of the Amended Law, any reference or indication contained in the main agreement concluded between the parties to another document containing an arbitration agreement is deemed to be analogous to a written arbitration clause under the original agreement. This is particularly useful in instances where parties sign specific terms and conditions which contain a reference to general terms and conditions containing an arbitration agreement.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also stipulates that prior arbitration agreements in employment contracts and consumer contracts concluded on preprinted forms shall be null and void. This amendment, in particular the ban on arbitrating any dispute that may arise out of an employment contract, is in line with the most recent and prevailing decisions of the Jordanian courts.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Arbitral Tribunal</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law introduces provisions relating to the number of arbitrators, their appointment and the designation of the presiding tribunal member in events where the disputing parties are 3 or more. According to Article (16) of the Amended Law, an agreement on the appointment and number of arbitrators as well as on the mechanism of appointing of the presiding member by the disputing parties shall always take precedence and prevail however, in absence of any such agreement: (i) the Competent Judge will appoint the arbitrators if their number was agreed upon between the disputing parties and will also name the presiding tribunal member and; (ii) Where the number of arbitrators and their method of appointment is not agreed upon by the disputing parties, the arbitral tribunal must then be comprised of 3 members appointed by the Competent Judge who will also name the presiding tribunal member and; (iii) if the number of arbitrators and their method of appointment was known, the appointed arbitrators must select the presiding member by a majority decision, if the majority was not achieved, the Competent Judge will name the presiding member pursuant to a request by any of the disputing parties. The Amended Law grants any of the disputing parties the right to resort to the Competent Judge in event of a disagreement as to any of the matters pertaining to the appointment of arbitrators who, in turn, must rule as necessary to resolve such disagreement. Finally in this regard, the Amended Law placed a duty on the Competent Judge, when selecting an arbitrator, (i) to consider the requirements of the law and the parties’ pre-set conditions in this regard and; (ii) to accelerate the process of decision making when selecting an arbitrator. Under the previous regime, decisions by the Competent Court appointing an arbitrator(s) were not subject to appeal before a higher court and were to be considered final. The Amended Law, in this regard, implicitly allows for an appeal of the Competent Judge’s decision by deleting, from the amended relevant article, the previous explicit text on the appeal constraints.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As for the challenge of arbitrators, the Amended Law placed a duty on both the prospective and appointed arbitrators to be impartial and independent. The Amended Law, in line with the UNCITRAL Model Law, places a continuing duty on the arbitrators to remain impartial and independent throughout the arbitral proceedings and imposes a duty on the arbitrators to disclose any such circumstances that may cause their impartiality or independence to be impaired.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Under the Amended Law, the application for the disqualification of an arbitrator by a party must be based on serious grounds. In addition, the procedures for requesting an arbitrator to be recused have been amended. Under the previous law, a request challenging the impartiality and independence of an arbitrator was to be submitted to the court of appeal; however, under the regime, the same request must now be submitted to the arbitral tribunal itself, which, in turn, must refer the request along with the challenged arbitrator’s response to the court of appeal if the challenged arbitrator does not recuse himself.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In line with the UNCITRAL Model Law, the Amended Law contains a special provision with regards to placing an obligation on the arbitral tribunal to act fairly and impartially and ensure that parties have an equal opportunity to present their case. The arbitral tribunal must also avoid any unjustified delay or unnecessary expenses in order to resolve the dispute in a timely manner \"<em>for the sake of achieving a fair and urgent means for dispute resolution.</em>\"</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In relation to the arbitral tribunal’s fees, the Amended Law introduced a new provision regarding the fees of the arbitral tribunal. Pursuant to such a provision, and in absence of an agreement between the disputing parties and the arbitral tribunal on the fees, the arbitral tribunal shall determine its own fees and order the disputing parties to each pay their share equally. A very important, yet lopsided addition under the Amended Law lies in a clause granting the arbitral tribunal the right to order the compliant party to pay the defaulting party’s share of the arbitral tribunal fees in events where a disputing party defaults in paying their share of the tribunal fees or any expenses of arbitration. Any decision issued by the arbitral tribunal concerning its fees may now be challenged through an appeal before the court of appeal within (15) days from the date of notification of the parties of the same.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Arbitral Proceedings</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law now allows Jordanian lawyers to \"<em>engage any non-Jordanian lawyer or any other professional and experienced person, if the contract subject matter of the dispute referred to arbitration is subject to the provisions of a foreign law.</em>\" Such an addition on the recourse to foreign legal counsel, as well as other relevant professionals to instances where the contract at issue in an arbitration is governed by the provisions of a foreign law, and by a means of assistance to the Jordanian lawyer, is favorable. It is regrettable, however, that the Amended Law did not make any provisions as to permitting non-Jordanian representation in arbitral proceedings where the underlying contract is governed by Jordanian law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law reconfirmed that Arabic shall be the default language applicable to the arbitral proceedings unless the parties agree otherwise. The arbitral tribunal is also entrusted with the power to determine the application of another language.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It is also worth noting that the Amended Law now allows the parties, at any time during the arbitral proceedings, to submit additional evidence to support their claim/defense unless the arbitral tribunal disapproves such submission. This new addition to the Amended Law was not provided for under the previous regime as the parties were only allowed to amend their grounds of defense and their final requests but were not permitted to submit any additional evidence.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also introduces major and welcomed changes to the means through which arbitration hearings and proceedings can now be conducted. Under the Amended Law, the arbitral tribunal is granted greater leeway in holding the hearings in a manner the tribunal sees fit so long as the hearings and the meetings can be documented in writing. The Amended Law introduced various provisions recognizing contemporary means of communication as it now permitted the arbitral tribunal to use any new method of communication to conduct any arbitration procedure, including the use of different telecommunication technological methods, such as videoconferencing for the purpose of hearing witness testimony. Such cost and time effective measures will undoubtedly contribute to the efficiency of the proceedings.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also reiterated the acceptance of affidavits, i.e., sworn statements of testimony, as evidence in arbitral proceedings. However, the Amended Law provided that should the opponent wish to cross examine the witness and the latter fails to appear before the arbitral tribunal, the entire affidavit must be ruled out as evidence.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As for experts, the Amended Law sets new conditions for the admission of expert reports where any of the parties to the arbitration submits such reports with their documentary evidence. For the expert report to be admissible under the Amended Law, the submitting party must disclose the expert appointment letter, the scope of work/assignment of the expert, and the fees that were paid to them. It is mandatory, under the Amended Law, to call the expert for questioning at the request of a party or should the tribunal so decide. As for the appointment of the expert, the Amended Law introduces an option for the appointment of a juristic person (company) as an expert as opposed to solely an individual as was the case under the previous regime.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Interim and Conservatory Measures</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Where either party wishes to apply for interim or conservatory measures, the Amended Law, like the previous law, allows the arbitrating parties to do so prior to the commencement of arbitral proceedings or during such proceedings in accordance with the relevant articles of the Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures No. (24) for the year 1988.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures No. (24) for the year 1988 provides that a claimant may apply to the judge of summary proceedings for a motion to attach and/or freeze property of the defendant party as a precautionary measure either prior to the filing of the substantive lawsuit or along with it. Where the motion is made prior to filing the substantive lawsuit, the Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures stipulates that the substantive lawsuit must be filed within a period of eight (8) days after procuring the decision to attach/freeze the properties of the defendant, otherwise any or all (where applicable) attached properties will be released.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">For the purpose of upholding the attachment of property after the (8) day period, the Amended Law now considers a notice to appoint an arbitrator served by the claimant upon the respondent along with the appointed arbitrator’s written confirmation of acceptance to be sufficient as a time barring event for the running of the (8) day period mentioned under the Jordanian Law of Civil Procedures. Such a trigger event to the confirmation of the attachment may cause some practical challenges as often the appointment of an arbitrator comes at a later stage in the proceedings, after the request for arbitration. In some urgent cases, the need to sustain the attachment would have to occur prior to the appointment of an arbitrator. Also, in some instances, the power to appoint an arbitrator, and depending on the agreement among the parties, lies outside of the parties, through for example an appointing authority.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Award</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As for the time limit within which the arbitral tribunal must render its final award, the previous regime provides that such time limit shall start to run from the date of the commencement of the arbitral proceedings until the lapse of a twelve (12) month period. The extension provided for was for only another six (6) months. The Amended Law provides for the same period; however, the time limit shall start to run from the date of the constitution of the arbitral tribunal. The arbitral tribunal may in any event extend the time limit for a period of twelve (12) months or as otherwise agreed by the parties.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In relation to the final arbitration award, the Amended Law provides that the final award must be issued unanimously or by a majority decision. In the absence of a majority, the parties may agree that the award be made by the president of the arbitral tribunal alone. If the parties do not agree as to how the award will be issued when a majority is not reached the arbitral proceedings shall cease and terminate.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Where any part of the claim was acknowledged by the opponent, the claimant may procure a final award for the acknowledged part of the claim. This provision was not provided for under the previous law.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">While the Amended Law did not introduce significant changes to the interpretation and correction of the final award, it provides that the explanatory award and the corrected award must be presented to the court before which a party files for a set aside action. The Amended Law also provides for the possibility to submit the correction or interpretation application to the court of appeal in the event that it is not possible for the arbitral tribunal to convene for making that correction or interpretation. Also, with regards to any additional awards made by the arbitral tribunal in connection with any missed part of the claim, the additional award shall take the form of an addendum and shall constitute part of the award. The additional award must also be submitted to court where a party files for a set aside action.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Award Set Aside and Enforcement</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law introduces a major significant change with regards to set aside actions. Under the previous regime, a set aside action could only be submitted to the court of appeal and its decision to set aside could be appealed before the cassation court. However, in the event that the court of appeal dismissed the set aside action and decided to uphold the arbitration award, such a decision could not be appealed against. The Amended Law stipulates that the only competent court for the purpose of filing a set aside action is now the cassation court, thereby reducing the stages of appeal to only one in the event that the cassation court rules to set aside the arbitration award. Therefore, should the cassation court rule to set aside the award, neither party further may appeal the decision. This is in contrast to the previous law under which there were two steps to an appeal since a set aside order by the court of appeal was subject to appeal before the cassation court.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Previously, the arbitration law provided that a decision to set aside an arbitration award would consequently render the arbitration agreement nullified as it results in litigation unless both parties agree on further arbitration. The Amended Law however provides that a decision to set aside an arbitration award does not affect the arbitration agreement unless such an agreement was in itself null void. This consequently means that the disputing parties, in the event an arbitration award is set aside, must resort again to arbitration as a method of dispute resolution.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Amended Law also transferred the role of examining enforcement applications to the sole jurisdiction of the cassation court as opposed to the court of appeal as was the case under the previous law. The Amended Law has withdrawn a party’s right to appeal the court’s decision rejecting enforcement due to incorrect service of summons or due to impossibility of enforcement when the award itself contravenes with public order.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As part of Jordan’s efforts to stimulate its economy and attract foreign investments, the Amended Law provides a comprehensive reform to the legislative framework of arbitration in Jordan. It undoubtedly provides a more modern and secure means of dispute resolution through arbitration in line with most internationally recognised arbitration guidelines and practices. With the Amended Law, arbitrating in Jordan is expected to gain new traction.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"></p>\r\n<em>For further information please contact Sara Koleilat-Aranjo (s.aranjo@tamimi.com) or Dana Al Shawa (d.alshawwa@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(251481, 24526, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(251482, 24526, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7958&amp;action=edit');
