Looking forward to 2021: A UAE perspective

Rachel Armstrong: Welcome to this short end of year round up for 2020 from the Gowling IP team based here in Dubai and as we look forward to 2021. I would like to start by welcoming our newest IP team member Noor Hasan who I am delighted joined us last month.

Noor Hasan: Thank you very much Rachel.

Rachel: In terms of 2020 and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic like all businesses we certainly saw an impact. This was particularly the case in early March, April, where a lot of our clients were pulling back on non-essential instructions, particularly on the prosecution side and ambitious filing programmes where the budgets just weren't going to be there for this year. Fortunately we saw that really pick up around mid-summer and pleased to say it has been busy from then until now and we are looking forward to a really positive 2021. Particularly the main impact we saw from an IP perspective were the office closures and difficulties with getting documents legalised which had an impact for essential documents such as powers of attorney and then on the enforcement side as well not being able to have the face to face meetings with the officials to discuss cases for clients. I think we have seen in several cases where that has had an impact.

Noor: There was also some positive news actually with the UAE fee reduction. So specifically in IP we have seen a lot of fee reduction across the IP field and specifically in trademark, we have seen 30%25 drop, which our clients have been very happy about and also actually with the Madrid protocol there has been some positive discussions.

Rachel: Certainly, so there has been some discussions around Saudi and the UAE exceeding to Madrid which would be a really positive development both for international brand owners looking to protect their rights in this region and also local companies looking to expand their protection more globally. So a really positive development there and something we will be certainly horizon watching for further 2021. I think really after a difficult year for everyone the stage is set for a positive 2021.

Simon Elliott: Hi I'm Simon Elliott, I'm a senior associate in the corporate team here at Gowling and I am joined today by Suhail Mirza a partner in the corporate team. So Suhail I think we are looking forward to 2021 for more reasons than others, especially with what has happened in 2020 and COVID and other such things. What is it particularly in the UAE that we are looking forward to in 2021?

Suhail Mirza: Thanks Simon, yeah, I mean obviously it has been a difficult year and the reasons have been documented. I think the phrase unprecedented has been used on more than one occasion. But going forward, I mean, I truly believe that the UAE government has been very proactive in trying to change the landscape for foreign investors in the region and to really instil some confidence in the market here and I am fully aware of, and most people will be, of the very recent measures that were put into place to deal with the virus, or the pandemic I should say, including various issues around restructuring employment and restructuring businesses and headcounts and also making the cost of business a lot more easier.

So those were kind of preventative measures that were put in place over the course of this calendar year but going forward I think there is plenty of room for optimism and just to give you a couple of examples Simon if you look at the ease on foreign ownership restrictions, that is a fantastic example of the way the UAE government has been very responsive to incentivise fresh capital to enter the UAE so by announcing back in early December the ease on the restriction on the 49%25 ownership of mainland companies we have seen a lot of interest from foreign corporations on doing business in the UAE and using the UAE as a springboard to move into the GCC and also if you look at that in the context of the normalisation of relationships with Israel and Bahrain having followed suit simultaneously and also we hear good news about other GCC jurisdictions as well as African jurisdictions signing normalisation treaties I think that will only help to increase the incentive on businesses to invest more money and capital in this region and generally speaking just to improve prospects going forward.

So I think the UAE government, like I said, has been very proactive in putting in place the building blocks to actually help the recovery over the course of the next year. So I am very much looking forward to a much more prosperous and optimistic outlook for 2021.

Simon: Sure, I think from the foreign ownership perspective we are looking forward, and foreign investors are looking forward, to knowing more about what these regulations will say on 100%25 ownership or the reduction of the 51%25 local ownership requirements and some more prescriptive scripted legislation on that. I think also there has been other changes that we have seen outside of the scope of the foreign investment, sort of outside of the business sphere as well in the UAE recently.

Do you have any opinions on things that the government have looked to be proactive on outside of business to encourage expat workers and foreign investment in the region?

Suhail: Yes of course, I mean Dubai and the UAE generally speaking has always been a great place to live. We have had the benefit of fantastic infrastructure and leisure facilities, sports facilities, it is a fantastic destination as most people say, but in recognition of the fact that we do have a predominately multicultural expat business community and also extending the theme of tolerance we have seen a sort of distinct change in the way the government is approaching personal laws and that has been announced with, for example, the relaxation on co-habiting without being married, that was previously illegal, but from now on there is no restriction on co-habiting.

Also allowing expats to have wills and being able to safeguard their investments in the region. There was always some grey area around recognition of foreign wills and as you may be aware the DIFC had its own probate division to allow people to have DIFC registered wills but now that has been eased a little bit more so that foreign wills will be recognised in the UAE which is great for expats and beyond that we have seen simplifying the visa requirements so there was a ten year golden visa, that was announced at the beginning of the year, or late 2019, but now that has been supplemented by the retirement visa so people over the age of retirement age, mandatory retirement age, now can get a visa here and can live here for a longer period so all of this is making it a much more user friendly place to live and to work and again reinforces the very dynamic approach taken by the rulers of the UAE and Sheikh Mohammed in particular in Dubai to facilitate Dubai and the UAE generally as a destination of choice for both business and individuals to develop here.

Simon: Sure, I think there is other things we are looking forward to in 2021, for example the delayed Expo 2020/2021 and I think that sort of fits really well with what you said about the government being so proactive particularly in the spaces such as technology and financial technology, fintech, and I think obviously that fits in really well with what we do here at Gowlings in the sort of the tech IP sectors that we strongly focus on.

Have you any other comments on what we are looking forward to in terms of Expo and the benefits to the UAE.

Suhail: I mean Expo has a very distinct UAE flavour to it. Obviously the government seized the initiative, it was unfortunate Expo had to be postponed due to the COVID pandemic but now we can move it to 2021 and all things being equal Expo will go ahead and what is good about Expo is that a lot of foreign nations are using it as a platform to demonstrate their technological advancement and to also integrate advancements in areas around the internet of things, artificial intelligence, fintech, those sorts of areas are going to be showcased at the Expo and you also look at the hyperloop and the amount of investment in the Virgin hyperloop to connect Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is amazing the very fact that the UAE have also sent or are planning to send an astronaut to space also launch its own space station. There is a clear strategy to looking ahead and just across the road from here we have what is called the Museum of the Future which is going to showcase more of this technology.

So you look at it holistically, you know, we could talk and talk about it and I know this is a very short overview of what is going on but going forward all of these technological innovations are just going to have a snowball effect and then you bring in play the Israeli investment, the US investment and also obviously the traditional investment that we have already had from China, India, all that will continue so we continue to be this gateway to regional enhancement and fantastic technological innovative opportunities going into 2021 and Expo is just going to be something that is underlining all of that.

Simon: Sure, I think that is great and I think in summary you know there is a lot of talk around the world about consolidation in these times during COVID and however you know it seems, as we have sort of demonstrated, that the UAE is really pushing forward so that is great, thanks Suhail.

Suhail: Thanks very much, thanks Simon and I wish everybody, take this opportunity to wish them a peaceful end to this, what has been a very challenging year but we look forward to doing business with everybody as usual come 2021. Thanks for listening.

Simon: Thank you.

Tony Fielding: Hi everyone, challenges, we have had a few of those this year and the tech sector has been no exception. However, with the tech sector we may not have even survived 2020 and certainly without it we would not have a vaccine at the moment. So the tech sector in the UAE has suffered like most other tech sectors, from the fear of COVID uncertainties projects were put on hold, budgets were frozen and project and transactions were postponed until 2021.

The good news for the UAE of course is that it is future tech focussed and the future tech focus and the ambition of that is driven by the national strategies and the national visions and a very ambitious government programme to make sure that tech drives Dubai and the UAE.

It is interesting because the UAE has very much laid the foundations for this in the next couple of years by setting up and establishing various ministries, various organisations and various forums. Some of the key ones obviously being the Blockchain Council, Smart Dubai, the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, various food tech hives and incubators and also the development of fairly investor friendly regulatory framework around new disruptive technologies here in the UAE.

Given 2020 I am reluctant to give my tech predictions for 2021 but here they are.

1. Artificial intelligence, that will come as no surprise to anybody, I think it will have a huge impact across all sectors from life sciences to energy to transportation and to basically ecommerce and various other tech driven sectors.
2. Key ethical issues will continue to be a main focus and I assume that they will be addressing those key ethical issues as well as many legal issues which no doubt will be followed by regulatory frameworks to assist in the implementation and the interpretation of artificial intelligence and its uses.
3. And thirdly I think we will see very interestingly is applications and use cases will be no only surprising to us but also incredibly interesting and exciting in relation to this particular space.

The other prediction is data protection and privacy. It will come as no surprise to anybody that data protection and privacy is a global concern currently given the amounts of data and access to it and cyber threats. The UAE again is no exception, we have new laws developed here in the UAE particularly with the recent DIFC Data Protection Law 2020 and it is certainly going to be the case that we will see a federal law implemented here in the UAE at some time in the future and this is very much a reflection of what is happening across the region in relation to data protection and privacy and I think we will see an explosion of that going forward.

5G networks will be purely a transformative form of technology across all sectors and it will have an enormous impact, it may not be doing so right now with fairly small commercial use cases and implementations in the region but definitely you will have seamless connectivity, you will have 100 times more capacity, faster usage than 4G, you will have multi device connectivity and you will see an explosion of IOT and machine to machine platforms and I think what is really interesting about 5G technology is you will have virtual reality, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles and 3D video calls, all of which will be very exciting innovations and will be drive by 5G technologies.

I also think that Blockchain will be one of those large technologies which finally, rather than becoming a soundbite, or being a soundbite, will actually become a reality and we will see very useful and transformative use cases in Blockchain particularly given the UAE government's public announcements about all government documentation being on the Blockchain by 2022.

Last but not least I think given that COVID has taken UAE and the region from a cash society to a cashless online payment society I think we will see an explosion not only in the ecommerce space which we are seeing now but also in the epayments and the fintech space and that is in combination with incubators and light touch regulations and sort of flexible licensing regimes which will encourage international investors and disrupters alike to come to the UAE and develop truly innovative and interesting technologies around the e-payments and online payment space.

So they are my general predictions for UAE, don't hold me to them because 2020 was a very unusual year but I think it is safe to say that 2021 is going to be all about tech.

Tim Casben: Finally I would just like to thank all my team for what they have done in what has been an incredibly challenging year and also thank our clients for all the support they have given us this year and it is just left to me to wish you a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year and let's all hope that 2021 is better than 2020. Thank you.

Noor: [Spoken in Arabic]

Tim: Thank you.