A competitor is using a name almost identical to my brand in the UAE — what can I do?

You still have options, though registration would have made this much easier. In the UAE, trademark rights flow primarily from registration with the Ministry of Economy, but an unregistered brand is not entirely unprotected: your registered trade name has standing, and unfair competition rules can be used against a competitor who deliberately imitates your name and logo to confuse customers in the same line of business. Three years of genuine trading gives you evidence of prior use and reputation, which matters in both directions. Act on two fronts at once. First, file your own trademark application now — registration is what gives you durable, enforceable rights going forward. Second, gather proof: dated invoices, marketing material, social media history, and examples of actual customer confusion. With that, you can send a formal cease-and-desist, complain to the relevant economic department about the misleading trade name, and oppose or seek cancellation of any trademark application the competitor files. Speed matters, because if they register the mark first, your position weakens considerably. An intellectual property lawyer in the UAE can assess the strength of your prior-use evidence and run the registration and enforcement steps in parallel.