An outright assignment by an Assignor to an Assignee of all intellectual property rights in defined materials, existing and future, under UAE federal law (mainland): each economic right expressly specified with its purpose, duration and place, consideration, delivery, a moral-rights consent (moral rights cannot be assigned), further assurance, short-form assignments for Ministry of Economy recordal, a choice of full, balanced or limited warranties, Emirate courts or DIAC arbitration, and optional licence back, improvements, indemnity and liability cap.
What it covers
Outright transfers of copyright, patents, trade marks, designs, software, know-how or other intellectual property in identified materials, for a stated consideration.
Clean-up assignments from founders, former contractors or group companies, and assignments supporting an asset purchase.
Assignments governed by UAE federal law, with the courts of a chosen emirate.
What it does not cover
Licences, options or exclusive distribution arrangements where ownership does not pass.
Assignments that form part of a full business or share purchase needing a sale and purchase agreement.
Employee invention assignment terms within an employment contract.
Assignments of rights subject to collective management, or of personality or image rights.
Assignments governed by DIFC or ADGM law.
Document preview19 sections
INDEXLAW / CONTRACT LIBRARYAGREEMENT TEMPLATE
Intellectual Property Assignment (UAE)
UAE Mainland
Highlighted blanks are the details your parties fill in.
Parties
This agreement is dated the date on which it is signed by the last of the parties.
This agreement is made between [TO BE CONFIRMED — Assignor legal name and details] (the "Assignor") and [TO BE CONFIRMED — Assignee legal name and details] (the "Assignee").
Key Terms
"Assigned Materials" means [TO BE CONFIRMED — Assigned materials (works, inventions, software, marks, designs being assigned)].
"Registered Rights" means [TO BE CONFIRMED — Registered rights and applications (office, number, title)].
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"Excluded Materials" means [TO BE CONFIRMED — Materials excluded from the assignment].
"Consideration" means [TO BE CONFIRMED — Consideration].
"Payment Period" means 30 days after the date of this agreement.
"Delivery Period" means 10 business days after the date of this agreement.
"Licence-Back Purpose" means [TO BE CONFIRMED — Purpose for which the Assignor may keep using the Assigned IP].
"Improvements Period" means [TO BE CONFIRMED — Period during which improvements are also assigned].
"Liability Cap" means the total Consideration paid or payable under this agreement.
"Emirate" means Dubai.
Definitions
"Intellectual Property Rights" means patents, utility models, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, trade marks and service marks, business names and domain names, rights in get-up and trade dress, goodwill and the right to sue for passing off or unfair competition, rights in designs, rights in computer software, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and all other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered, and including all applications for, and rights to apply for and be granted, any of them, all renewals and extensions of them, all rights to claim priority from them, and all similar or equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
"Assigned IP" means all Intellectual Property Rights in or relating to the Assigned Materials, whether existing at the date of this agreement or coming into existence afterwards, anywhere in the world, but not moral rights or similar personal rights of authors, which the Moral Rights clause deals with.
Interpretation
Where a party is an individual, "it" and "its" include him or her and his or her, a reference to this agreement being duly authorised on a party's behalf applies only to a party that is a body corporate or other entity, and a reference to a party's successors includes his or her heirs and other legal successors.
Assignment
In return for the Consideration, the Assignor assigns to the Assignee absolutely all its right, title and interest in the Assigned IP, for the full term of each right, including all renewals, revivals and extensions, throughout the world, for every form of exploitation, including reproduction (including downloading and electronic storage), performance, broadcasting and re-broadcasting, public performance and communication to the public, translation, adaptation, modification, rental, lending and publication in any manner (including making available through computer, data or communication networks), for the purposes of the Assignee's business and for all other purposes and in all media whether now known or later developed. Each of those economic rights is expressly assigned.
To the extent any Assigned IP comes into existence after the date of this agreement, including copyright in any part of the Assigned Materials not yet created and rights that arise on registration, the Assignor shall assign it to the Assignee, by a written assignment that identifies the rights assigned and states, as Article 9 of Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021 requires, that they are assigned for every purpose, throughout the world and for the full term of protection, made promptly after the right comes into existence, without further consideration. Nothing in this clause is an assignment of a work or right before it exists. This clause applies only to the specific works and rights described in the Assigned Materials and does not transfer the Assignor's future output generally.
The assignment includes the right to bring proceedings, and to recover and keep damages, an account of profits and any other remedy, for any infringement of the Assigned IP, whether the infringement occurred before or after the date of this agreement.
The Assigned IP includes the Registered Rights, together with all rights to claim priority from them and all rights to apply for and obtain registration of any of the Assigned IP anywhere in the world.
Where the Assigned IP includes a trade mark, it is assigned together with the goodwill of the business connected with that trade mark.
The Assigned IP does not include any Intellectual Property Rights in the Excluded Materials.
Consideration
The Assignee must pay the Consideration to the Assignor within the Payment Period, to the bank account the Assignor notifies in writing.
The Consideration is exclusive of value added tax. If value added tax is chargeable on the assignment under UAE law, the Assignee must pay it in addition on receipt of a valid tax invoice.
Delivery
By the end of the Delivery Period, the Assignor must deliver to the Assignee all copies of the Assigned Materials in its possession or control, in every form in which they are held, including source files, source code, design documents, laboratory notebooks, and the files and correspondence with any intellectual property office relating to the Assigned IP.
After delivery, the Assignor must not keep any copy of the Assigned Materials, except as permitted under this agreement or as required by law.
Moral Rights
No moral right is assigned or waived by this agreement to the extent the law does not allow it. To the extent the law allows, the Assignor consents to the Assignee and its licensees and successors publishing, adapting, modifying, translating and otherwise exploiting the Assigned Materials, and using them without attribution where that is customary, and agrees not to exercise any moral right to prevent those acts unless they would prejudice the author's honour or reputation. The Assignor must use all reasonable endeavours to obtain written consents in the same terms from each other author of any work comprised in the Assigned Materials.
Further Assurance
At the Assignee's request and cost, the Assignor must promptly sign and deliver all documents, and do all other things, that the Assignee reasonably requires to perfect, record, register, maintain, defend or enforce the Assignee's title to the Assigned IP, including confirmatory assignments in a form suitable for filing at any intellectual property office. This includes documents notarised, legalised or translated into Arabic where a UAE authority requires it. This obligation continues without limit of time.
The Assignor must use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that each of its employees, contractors and other persons who created or contributed to the Assigned Materials signs any document the Assignee reasonably requires to confirm that their rights in the Assigned IP vest in the Assignee.
Registration and Recordal
The Assignee may record the assignment of the Assigned IP at any intellectual property office, at its own cost. The Assignor must promptly give the Assignee the information and signed documents it reasonably requires for that purpose and must cooperate reasonably in any pending application, opposition, revocation, cancellation or other office proceeding concerning the Assigned IP.
Each party must sign any short-form assignment of a Registered Right that the UAE Ministry of Economy requires to record the assignment, before a notary public in the UAE or, if signed outside the UAE, with the legalisation the Ministry requires. The Assignor must sign each such document at the same time as this agreement or, if that is not practicable, promptly on request.
Until the assignment of a registered right comprised in the Assigned IP is recorded, the Assignor must not do anything that would impair that right, must promptly forward to the Assignee any correspondence it receives about it, and must take any step the Assignee reasonably requests, at the Assignee's cost, to maintain or defend it.
Until any Assigned IP vests in the Assignee, the Assignor holds it for the benefit of the Assignee and must exercise it only as the Assignee directs.
Warranties
Each party warrants that it has full power and authority to enter into and perform this agreement, and that this agreement has been duly authorised and signed on its behalf.
The Assignor warrants to the Assignee that, at the date of this agreement: it is the sole owner of the Assigned IP and is entitled to assign it; it has not assigned, licensed, charged or otherwise encumbered the Assigned IP, except as disclosed to the Assignee in writing before the date of this agreement; so far as the Assignor is aware, the Assigned IP is valid and subsisting, and nothing has been done or omitted that would make any registered right comprised in it invalid or liable to revocation; and so far as the Assignor is aware, the exploitation of the Assigned Materials does not infringe the rights of any third party, no third party is infringing the Assigned IP, and no claim has been made or threatened that challenges the Assigned IP or its ownership.
Indemnity
The Assignor must indemnify the Assignee against all losses, damages, costs (including reasonable legal fees) and expenses that the Assignee suffers as a result of any claim by a third party that it owns or is entitled to any of the Assigned IP.
Limitation of Liability
Nothing in this agreement limits or excludes liability for fraud, gross negligence, wilful misconduct or any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. Subject to that, the Assignor's total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with this agreement is limited to the Liability Cap.
Licence Back
The Assignee grants the Assignor a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide and perpetual licence to use the Assigned IP solely for the Licence-Back Purpose. The Assignor may sublicense it only to its affiliates and to contractors working for it on that purpose, and may transfer it only with the whole of the business to which it relates.
Improvements
During the Improvements Period, the Assignor must promptly disclose to the Assignee every modification, improvement or development of the Assigned Materials made by or for the Assignor, and all Intellectual Property Rights in them form part of the Assigned IP without further payment.
Confidentiality
The Assignor must keep confidential all non-public information comprised in or relating to the Assigned IP, including unpublished inventions, source code and know-how, and must not use or disclose it except as permitted under this agreement, as required by law or with the Assignee's written consent.
Each party must keep the terms of this agreement confidential, except for disclosure to its professional advisers, as required by law or a competent authority, or as needed to record or enforce the assignment.
Notices
A notice under this agreement must be in writing and delivered by hand, by courier or by email to the Assignor at [TO BE CONFIRMED — Assignor notice address and email] and to the Assignee at [TO BE CONFIRMED — Assignee notice address and email], or to any replacement details a party notifies in writing. A notice delivered by hand or courier is received on delivery, and an email when it reaches the recipient's mail server, unless the sender receives a delivery failure message.
General
Each party bears its own costs of negotiating and entering into this agreement. The Assignee bears the official fees for recording the assignment.
This agreement is the entire agreement between the parties about its subject matter and replaces all earlier discussions and arrangements about it. A variation is effective only if it is in writing and signed by both parties.
A waiver is effective only if it is in writing and applies only to the circumstance for which it is given. If any provision of this agreement is invalid or unenforceable, the rest of this agreement remains effective.
The Assignee may assign or transfer its rights under this agreement, together with the Assigned IP. The Assignor may not assign or transfer its rights or obligations under this agreement without the Assignee's prior written consent. This agreement binds the parties' successors.
A person who is not a party to this agreement has no right to enforce any of its terms, except a successor in title to the Assigned IP.
This agreement may be signed in counterparts and by electronic signature, each of which is an original and which together form one agreement.
Governing Law and Disputes
This agreement is made in English. If a competent authority or court requires an Arabic version, the parties will cooperate in preparing and signing an accurate Arabic translation. Between the parties, the English text prevails to the extent the law allows.
This agreement is governed by the federal laws of the United Arab Emirates and, to the extent applicable, the laws of the Emirate, except that the validity of a registered right granted outside the United Arab Emirates is governed by the law of the country that granted it.
The competent courts of the Emirate, other than the courts of any financial free zone, have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with this agreement. This does not prevent either party from seeking urgent, interim or protective measures from any other competent court.