Background
Until 11 November 2026 the Maldives had no trademark register. Rights holders relied on cautionary notices published in local newspapers, which asserted ownership and put the market on notice but conferred no registered right. Enforcement depended on evidence of use and reputation.
The Trademark Act (Law No. 19/2025) (the "Act") was ratified and published in the Government Gazette on 11 November 2025 and came into force twelve months later, on 11 November 2026. It establishes a registration system covering filing, examination, publication, opposition, renewal, recordal and enforcement. Administration is shared between three bodies:
the Registrar of Intellectual Property at the Maldives Intellectual Property Office (MIPO), established under separate legislation with effect from 1 January 2026, which examines applications, maintains the register and issues procedural rules;
the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, which issues the general subordinate regulations; and
the Maldives Customs Service, which administers border measures and must issue its own regulations on detention applications under Article 41(d).
The subordinate regulations, which will settle forms, fees and much of the procedure, must be issued within six months of commencement, that is by 11 May 2027.
Entitlement and registrable subject matter
Maldivian and foreign natural and legal persons may apply. Foreign applicants do not require foreign investment approval and need not establish a local business presence. Applicants may appoint a local representative.
A trademark is any sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of another, including personal names, letters, numerals, figurative elements and colours, alone or in combination. The Act also provides for certification marks, which the owner may not use to certify its own goods or services, and collective marks, which may not be licensed.
Examination and opposition
The Act adopts a first-to-file system, with exclusive rights arising on registration. The registered proprietor may prevent unauthorised use in trade of an identical or similar sign for identical or similar goods or services where confusion is likely.
Applications are examined on both absolute and relative grounds.
Absolute grounds follow the familiar pattern: lack of distinctive character; exclusively descriptive or generic signs; shapes resulting from the nature of the goods, necessary to obtain a technical result, or giving substantial value; marks contrary to public morality or deceptive as to origin, nature or quality; and unauthorised state or international emblems. A mark that has acquired distinctiveness through continuous use in the Maldives may nonetheless be registered.
Relative grounds include conflict with an earlier registered mark or pending application for identical or similar goods or services; conflict with a well-known mark, irrespective of the goods or services, where use would cause confusion or suggest an unfair association; infringement of copyright or design rights; bad faith; and conflict with an unregistered mark used in good faith in the Maldives for at least six months before the filing date.
After formal examination, applicants receive a correction period of one month (Maldivian applicants) or two months (foreign applicants), failing which the application does not proceed. Accepted applications are published, and any interested party may oppose within three months of publication. An opposed applicant has three months to respond. Practitioners currently estimate six to eight months from filing to registration for unopposed applications, and nine to twelve months where an opposition is filed. These estimates are untested.
Convention priority without Paris accession
The Act permits an applicant who first filed in a member state of the Paris Convention or the World Trade Organization to claim priority in the Maldives within six months, for the same mark and identical goods or services.
The Maldives is a WTO member but has not acceded to the Paris Convention. The priority right therefore rests on domestic legislation rather than treaty obligation, and there is no reciprocity: a Maldivian filing will not, at present, found a Paris priority claim elsewhere. How MIPO will verify priority documents and treat partial claims is a matter for the regulations. Clients with recent filings in the UK or elsewhere should file within the six-month window and preserve certified copies, but should not assume the claim will go unchallenged.
The Maldives is not a member of the Madrid System. Protection requires a national application; an international registration cannot be extended to the Maldives by subsequent designation.
Term, renewal and recordal
Registration subsists for ten years from the registration date and is renewable for successive ten-year periods. A six-month grace period applies after expiry, subject to a late renewal fee; a registration not renewed within that period lapses automatically.
Changes of ownership, in respect of both registrations and pending applications, must be recorded and published by the Registrar, and take effect against third parties only on recordal. The same applies to licences of registered marks. For corporate groups that hold marks in one entity and trade through another, recordal is a precondition to the licence binding third parties, and the applicant entity should be settled before filing.
Enforcement
Civil. The courts may grant interim injunctions, order the destruction or removal of infringing goods, award compensation and order disclosure of third parties involved in the infringement. Proceedings must be brought within five years of the infringement becoming known. Because the period runs from knowledge rather than from the infringing act, it may end later than a conventional limitation period.
Border measures. Owners of registered marks may apply to Customs for the detention of suspected infringing goods. Customs determines applications within prescribed time limits and may require security. The procedure awaits the Customs regulations under Article 41(d).
Criminal. Counterfeiting, and the use, sale, import or export of counterfeit marks or goods, are offences punishable by fines of MVR 100,000 to MVR 2,000,000, with powers of confiscation and destruction.
The transitional period
Filing opened on 11 November 2026. Existing marks must be re-filed under the Act within twelve months, by 11 November 2027, failing which they will be cancelled. Since no register existed before commencement, this in practice captures marks protected through use and cautionary notices.
The transitional period and the first-to-file rule sit uneasily together. On the Act as currently understood, nothing gives a re-filing proprietor precedence over a third party who files first during the window. The proprietor's principal protection is the relative ground for good-faith unregistered use of at least six months, together with the bad faith and well-known mark grounds, all of which must be asserted in opposition or later proceedings. Whether the regulations will address competing filings during the transitional period remains to be seen.
Practical steps
File early in the transitional window. The deadline is 11 November 2027, but under a first-to-file system any delay creates exposure. Core marks should be filed as soon as practicable.
Preserve evidence of use. Cautionary notices, invoices, advertising and distribution records will be relevant to the good-faith prior use ground and to acquired distinctiveness, and should be retained.
Check priority windows. Recent filings in Paris Convention or WTO states may support a priority claim if the Maldivian application follows within six months, subject to the uncertainty noted above.
Settle ownership and record licences. Identify the correct applicant entity before filing, and plan for recordal of assignments and licences once registration issues.
Monitor the regulations. Forms, fees, priority procedure and Customs detention all depend on subordinate regulations due by 11 May 2027.
Put watching in place. Third-party filings during the transitional period must be identified within the three-month opposition window.
Instructing us
ScalaxIP has extensive experience in the Maldives, including preparing and publishing cautionary notices for brand owners under the system the Act replaces. We know how those notices were drafted and published, and what they do and do not cover, which puts us in a good position to help rights holders move existing protection onto the new register.
We can assist with:
Reviewing existing cautionary notices. We check what each notice covers, who it names as owner, and whether it still matches the mark and the goods or services in use. Gaps found at this stage can be dealt with before re-filing.
Republishing cautionary notices where required. Where a notice is out of date, incomplete or names the wrong entity, republication keeps a current public record of ownership while applications under the Act proceed.
Filing under the Act. This includes re-filing marks within the transitional period, new applications, clearance, drafting specifications and assessing priority claims.
Oppositions and watching. We can monitor published applications, identify conflicting third-party filings and act within the three-month opposition window.
Recordal and enforcement. This covers recording assignments and licences once marks are registered, and preparing for border measures as the Customs regulations take effect.
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