Omar Obeidat

Omar Obeidat is a Partner and Head of Intellectual Property at Al Tamimi & Company, based in the Dubai International Financial Centre. His practice focuses on Intellectual Property Law, with over 22 years of experience in this field.

Omar obtained his LL.B degree in 1996 from Yarmouk University, Jordan, and his LL.M. degree in 1997 from the University of Georgia at Athens, USA. He has advised on a number of areas including intellectual property, competition, media, regulatory affairs and compliance, and consumer protection in the UAE as well as the Arab region. He previously advised, with a team of lawyers, the Jordanian Government on the accession to the World Trade Organization.

Omar has overseen the Competition Law in the UAE from its inception, initially commenting on the draft law to its adoption and later implementation. He is quite active in liaising with the UAE Competition Authority in addressing compliance or defending clients' interests. On competition disputes, he was successful in defending a movie distributor and cinema operator in the first of its kind Competition Law investigation in the UAE. On merger clearances, he was successful in obtaining approval for the economic concentration decision by the Minister of Economy for Uber's acquisition of Careem assets, the first merger control clearance worldwide for this transaction.

On the legislative side, Omar assisted in drafting or commenting on the Trademarks Regulation, Industrial Property (Design & Patent) Law, Trade Secrets Draft, Competition Law, Cyber Crimes Law and Plant Varieties Law.

He has spoken at numerous seminars, conferences and round tables, mostly on intellectual property, and is regularly hosted on televised programs including BBC World, Dubai TV, One TV, Rotana and Abu Dhabi TV, and has extensive publications.

Omar is qualified before the Jordan Bar Association and is a member of many organisations locally and internationally, including Vice Chairman of AIPPI-UAE, Board member of the Brand Owners Protection Group (BPG), and has sat on various committees in the International Trademarks Association (INTA). He previously served as Trustee and Board member to the Dubai Advisory Board for Intellectual Property, sat as a member of the Advisory Board for the Middle East North Africa Franchise Association (MENAFA), and sits on the Steering Committee for Global Entrepreneurship Monitor-UAE Chapter.

He is ranked Band 1 in Chambers and Tier 1 in Legal 500, and The World Trademark Review ranked him as Gold, stating "IP head Omar Obeidat is the star of the show; he is strongly endorsed for his anti-counterfeiting know-how and his in-depth understanding of IP law." He was also a winner of the Client Choice Awards 2015 under the practice Intellectual Property-Trademarks and was chosen by Managing Intellectual Property in the IP Stars Handbook from 2014 through 2019.

His recent experience includes acting for Uber in the merger clearance and economic concentration approval for acquiring assets of Careem in the UAE, acting for Gilead in training and compliance of their GCC team with competition laws and practice in the Middle East, acting for Vodafone in enforcing their rights in the UAE, KSA and Kuwait, and preparing a manual and delivering training on Competition Law to the Ferrero Gulf team.

He holds an LL.M. from the University of Georgia, USA (1997) and an LLB from Yarmouk University (1996), and was admitted to the Jordan Lawyers Bar Association in 1997. He speaks Arabic and English.