Adapting to Change: Practical Guidance on the Maldives’ New IP Regime
Maldives Supplement for Brand Owners & Concessionaires
Introduction
The Maldives hospitality market is highly brand-driven, characterized by a strong and established presence of international hotel brands. In recent years, Food & Beverage (F&B) concessionaires have also aggressively increased their footprint, introducing branded dining concepts both across the capital city of Malé and within luxury resorts.
In addition to traditional Hotel Management Agreements (HMAs), alternative structures like Hotel Franchise Agreements (HFAs) and standalone F&B License Agreements are becoming increasingly commonplace. This supplement outlines critical strategic adjustments for hotel management companies, F&B licensors, and brand owners under the newly evolving legal landscape.
Protecting Your IP & Granting Licenses
Upon entering into an HMA, HFA, or commercial franchise structure, brand owners typically issue a contractual license to a local developer or licensee. Standard terms tightly regulate this usage, including:
- Explicit permissions for using the brand’s name, localized marks, and intellectual operating systems.
- Strict restrictions preventing the owner from sub-licensing or altering brand presentation parameters.
- Mandatory Brand Standard Obligations forcing property upkeep to the brand’s exact global tier metrics.
- Post-termination safeguards dictating the immediate cessation of brand usage and names upon contract expiration.
The New Trademark Registration Framework
While the Maldives Trademark Act (Law No. 14/2021) has been enacted and the Maldives Intellectual Property Office (“MIPO”) is established under the Maldives Intellectual Property Office Act (Law No. 13/2025), the formal domestic trademark registry is expected to become operational in or around November 2026.
Until this registry opens, foreign applicants without an already registered, active business presence inside the Maldives cannot directly file a domestic trademark application. Historically, brands bypassed this by forcing licensees to file local registrations under the licensee’s own name for the duration of the agreement. However, once the registry goes live around November 2026, all brand owners—regardless of local presence—will be permitted to apply for direct filings with MIPO.
The initial opening of MIPO’s brand registry in November 2026 poses a distinct window of exposure for trademark squatting. Brand owners must preemptively audit existing uses, monitor the registry opening dates closely, and prepare to file formal opposition proceedings if conflicting applications are discovered.
Interim Strategy Checklist
In this interim period leading up to the registry’s opening, brand owners should implement the following protective measures:
Recommended Brand Protection Strategies:
- Audit Existing Registrations: Assess whether local licensees have registered your intellectual property under their individual or corporate names with local ministries. If so, clear pathways must be structured to deregister those placeholders ahead of direct MIPO filings.
- Pre-Search Verification: Run structured clearance pre-searches across local databases to ensure your signature brand marks remain uncompromised and fully available.
- Establish Mirror Jurisdiction Claims: File or maintain matching trademark applications in active regional commercial jurisdictions to formally demonstrate active commercial usage.
- Class Prioritization & Paris Convention Rights: Prioritize filing preparations under relevant classifications, notably Class 43 (Services for providing food and drink; temporary accommodation). Note that if a trademark application was formally lodged in a Paris Convention jurisdiction within the six months preceding the Maldives filing, priority claims may be deployed to backdate the effective Maldivian filing date.
A Regime in Tandem: The Business Registration Act
While brand assets fall under the Trademark Act, brand owners must also navigate the Business Registration Act. This legislation mandates that all commercial business executed within the Maldives must operate via a registered legal entity, and any trade name used in connection with that business must be formally registered with the government.
Consequently, local owners or licensees are legally required to register the commercial trade name of a resort or franchise restaurant under their own business entity, even though the core trademark inside that name belongs entirely to the foreign licensor.
A developer enters an HMA with a foreign hotel brand to position their resort property under the brand name “ABC Luxury”. The parties contractually agree to call the destination “ABC Luxury Island, Maldives”. Under local law, the developer must register “ABC Luxury Island, Maldives” as its own official trade/business name with the ministry, despite having zero proprietary ownership over the underlying “ABC Luxury” trademark.
Neither piece of legislation currently contains special cross-exemptions addressing this combined overlap.
Brand owners must ensure their legal agreements precisely restrict the scope of the trademark license relative to local business name registrations. Crucially, the contract must mandate the automatic and immediate deregistration of any local business or trade names containing the brand marks upon the expiration, termination, or default of the agreement.
Additional Regulatory Considerations
Local Entity Registration Triggers
Whether a brand owner faces direct registration triggers depends on the operational model:
- Pure Licensing / Franchise Model: If the brand simply licenses intellectual concepts and brand marks, a local registration trigger is generally not activated.
- Active Management Model (HMAs): If the brand actively manages or physically operates a resort, hotel, or food outlet on-site, it will likely qualify as an investor carrying out an active business under the Foreign Investment Act (Law No. 11/2024) and the Business Registration Act. This necessitates securing a 5-year foreign investment approval and incorporating a local entity.
Sector-Specific Ministry Approvals
For management companies executing an HMA with a local developer, the parties must secure the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation’s prior consent before executing the HMA. Once this primary approval clears, the management firm can proceed to incorporate its local entity, execute the HMA, and formally register the final agreement at the Ministry.
Brand owners must conduct exhaustive due diligence to verify that local counterparts hold or are fully capable of securing all requisite operational licenses needed to run the property and deploy the brand legally in Maldivian territory.
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