A report was recently issued by the U.S. Trade Representative, praising the efforts of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) to protect and enforce and promote respect for intellectual property rights.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office stated that Saudi has made significant progress in this area as a result of a number of national-level initiatives, including the publication of intellectual property enforcement procedures, increased enforcement campaigns against counterfeit goods, and combating online piracy. Additionally, initiatives include promoting the role of intellectual property among 76 government entities and implementing various awareness campaigns and specialized training programs, which have been essential to these efforts.
Among other Middle Eastern states, Türkiye, and Egypt remain on the office’s Watch List.
In Türkiye, the report noted there is counterfeiting of clothing and food, insufficient inspections of pharmaceutical products, and government use of unlicensed software, among other issues.
However, the office said Türkiye has improved its intellectual property regime by implementing the Industrial Property Law.
The office also said Egypt’s penalties for intellectual property violations are insufficiently “deterrent.” They noted “some progress” in authorities cracking down on illegal streaming of U.S. networks, but that more could be done.
Earlier in March, SAIP’s statistical report on the intellectual property revealed an increase in the number of applications submitted to the authority in 2021 compared to the previous year, with patent applications up 11 percent and trademark applications up 26 percent.
The number of applications for industrial model registration climbed by 48 percent, while the number of applications for voluntary registration of copyright works increased by 57 percent.
This year also saw the release of the first two documents in Saudi’s history to protect integrated circuit designs.
