– Law No. 28 of 2010 on Industrial Designs, issued on December 26, 2010, in force since March 26, 2011.
– Implementing Regulations No. 212 of 2011 relating to Law No. 28, in force since October 3, 2011.

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since March 29, 1979.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act, since February 15, 2007.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since June 26, 2014.

Conditions of protection: novelty and industrial applicability.

Application: to be submitted to the General Department of Intellectual Property Protection.

Novelty: absolute novelty is required. A novelty examination takes into consideration any specification previously lodged with the Department or any industrial design previously registered.

Examination: the Department examines the appropriateness of the formal aspects of the application and the required documents, as well as the technical aspects to ensure that there had been no former identical or similar registration.

Publication: the Department has started publication and issuance of registration certificates for design applications. The certificate is issued in paper format.

Opposition: an application may be opposed within ninety days from the publication date.

Duration: ten years from the filing date.

Renewal: not renewable.

Annuity: no annuity payment is required. 

Assignment – license: possible; must be recorded in the Registry and published in order to be effective against third parties.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney, legalized up to a Yemeni Consulate or any other Arab Consulate;
2. A copy of the Certificate of Incorporation or an extract from the Commercial Register of the applicant with a simple English translation (legalization is not required);
3. Application form, including an abstract summarizing the design or model;
4. Detailed description and the products it is meant to cover;
5. Drawings or representations showing various views of the design or model and proving practice.

Electronic filing: is not available in Yemen. 

Electronic signatures: are not accepted (only wet signatures). It is possible to submit soft scanned copies of any required document; the original must be submitted at a later date.

For a change of name or address:
1. Power of attorney, legalized up to a Yemeni Consulate or any other Arab Consulate;
2. A certified or notarized document showing the change of name or address;
3. A simple copy of the registration certificate.

The “Trade Gazette” (Official Gazette) is designated by Decree No. 61 as the means through which the registered industrial design or model should be published, assigned or cancelled. 

Infringement and penalties: in case of infringement a fine of YER 1,000,000 has to be paid.