The enforcement provisions are the most substantial part of the new Act, and the sharpest break from what came before. A cautionary notice was a warning with nothing behind it. The Act puts injunctions, damages, destruction orders, criminal fines and border seizure behind the right.
The condition attached to all of it is the same one that runs through the Act: you need a registration.
Quick reference
| What infringes | Unauthorised use of identical or deceptively similar marks |
| Also infringing | Dealing in counterfeit goods — import, export, sale or distribution |
| Interim relief | Injunctions, including ex parte in urgent cases |
| Monetary | Damages, plus recovery of enforcement costs |
| Goods | Orders for destruction or removal |
| Criminal | Fines of MVR 100,000 to MVR 2,000,000 for counterfeiting |
| Border | State authority to seize counterfeit goods |
| Precondition | A registration — the remedies attach to the registered right |
What infringes
Two limbs.
Unauthorised use of an identical or deceptively similar mark. The conventional test, and the familiar one across the region.
Dealing in counterfeit goods — expressly covering import, export, sale or distribution. Naming import and export separately matters in a country where almost everything on a shelf arrived by sea or air, and where the counterfeit problem is a supply problem rather than a manufacturing one.
The civil remedies
Interim injunctions, including ex parte relief in urgent cases. This is the provision that makes the Act usable. Counterfeit stock moves; a consignment landing on a Thursday is distributed by the following week. Relief you can get without notice, quickly, is the difference between stopping goods and documenting their disappearance.
Damages and recovery of enforcement costs. Costs recovery is worth noting in its own right. In a small jurisdiction the economics of enforcement often fail — the cost of acting exceeds the value of the goods seized — and a costs provision changes that calculation.
Destruction or removal of infringing goods. The disposal route, so the stock does not simply re-enter the market.
Criminal penalties
Counterfeiting may attract criminal penalties, with fines from MVR 100,000 to MVR 2,000,000.
The range is deliberately wide and the top end is substantial for the market — roughly the scale that makes commercial counterfeiting unattractive rather than a cost of doing business. For comparison, Nepal’s maximum trademark penalty is a fine of NPR 100,000; the Maldivian ceiling is an order of magnitude more serious in real terms.
What the Act’s framework as reported does not make clear is whether imprisonment is available alongside the fines, how the criminal route is initiated, and whether a rights holder can drive a prosecution or must rely on the State. Those are questions for the regulations and early practice.
Border seizure
The State has authority to seize counterfeit goods at the border.
For the Maldives this is the single most practically important enforcement power. The economy is import-dependent and tourism-facing: counterfeit goods arrive through a small number of entry points, and the resort and retail market is concentrated. Interdiction at the border reaches the problem at its narrowest point.
What is not yet published is the mechanism — whether rights holders can record their marks with customs in advance, as India and Pakistan allow, how notification works, who bears storage and destruction costs, and what security a rights holder must give. A recordal system is the difference between a power the State may exercise and a tool a brand owner can actually use.
This is the first thing to ask MIPO and Customs about once the regulations issue.
What enforcement depends on
Three things, and they all point backwards to the filing decision.
A registration. The remedies attach to the registered right. Until 11 November 2026 there are no registrations, and during the transition the brands most likely to need enforcement — long-established, widely counterfeited — are precisely the ones holding cautionary notices rather than rights.
Filing early. Enforcement is not available to the party with the better history; it is available to the party on the register. See the transition to registration.
The regulations. Procedure, evidence, which court hears what, and how the border power is invoked are all still to come.
Before the register opens
For a brand with a counterfeiting problem in the Maldives today, the useful preparation is:
- Document the problem now — what is being copied, where it is sold, which consignments, which sellers. Evidence gathered before you have a right is still evidence when you have one.
- Be ready to file on day one, because the remedies start with the registration.
- Publish a cautionary notice in the interim if you have not, for the dated record. See cautionary notices.
- Map the import routes for your goods, so that a border recordal can be put in place the moment the mechanism exists.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as trademark infringement in the Maldives? Unauthorised use of an identical or deceptively similar mark, and dealing in counterfeit goods — including import, export, sale and distribution.
Can I get an injunction without notice? The Act provides for interim injunctions including ex parte relief in urgent cases.
What are the criminal penalties for counterfeiting? Fines from MVR 100,000 to MVR 2,000,000. Whether imprisonment is available alongside is not settled in what has been published.
Can counterfeits be stopped at the border? The State has authority to seize counterfeit goods at the border. Whether rights holders can record marks with customs in advance is a question for the regulations.
Can I enforce without a registration? No. The remedies attach to the registered right, which is why filing early in the transition window matters for any brand with a counterfeiting problem.
Can I recover my costs? The Act provides for damages and recovery of enforcement costs.
Useful official resources
- Maldives Intellectual Property Office
- Maldives Customs Service — for border measures as they are implemented
- Trademarks Act, Law No. 19/2025
See our related notes on the transition to registration, well-known trademarks and trademark protection in the Maldives.
Dealing with counterfeit product in the Maldives before the register opens? Talk to us.