Morocco is a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. The International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks under the Nice Agreement (11th edition) is followed in Morocco.

The Law No. 17.97 relating Industrial Property Law has been modified and supplemented by the new Law No. 23.13 and it is in force since December 18, 2014.

A trademark registration according to the law is valid for 10 years from the date of filing the application, and renewable for periods of 10 years each. The new trademark law provides a six months period for the late renewal of a trademark. If a trademark registration is not renewed within the grace period as of the date of expiration, it will be canceled automatically. Trademarks in Morocco are examined on absolute grounds.

The average time frame for filing a trademark up to registration varies on several factors, but on average between 6-8 months.

Once a trademark is registered, no amendments would be allowed. The publication term is two months, where an opposition can be filed within the publication term at the local trademark office.

Recordal of assignment and other transactions, such as change of name, address, merger and license are all permitted. As for un-traditional trademarks, the same are not acceptable yet.

The official language used in Morocco for filing and submitting a trademark related transaction is the French language, and most transactions are being filed online.

Use of marks in Morocco is not compulsory for filing applications or necessary for maintaining mark registrations in force. However, a mark registration is vulnerable to cancellation and can be canceled by any interested party, who can establish that the trademark was not actually used during the 5 years, which are usually calculated from the filing date, noting that filing date is considered as a registration date once the mark matured into registration.