Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — There have been a total of 173 intellectual property court cases within the past two years, Al-Watan reported.

Lawyer and legal consultant Omar Al-Khouli said intellectual property cases include stealing company trademarks, poems, musical pieces, patents, screenplays and others.

“The penalties for such actions depend on the harm done. There is no charter for protecting intellectual properties in Saudi law. We have dispersed laws in different branches in our judicial system which is a big negative in our legal system,” said Al-Khouli.

He added the law should be amended to accommodate intellectual property rights as they are currently in the hands of people who have no judicial of legal qualifications.

Lawyer Abdullah Al-Ghamdi said there are already laws against intellectual property theft.

“The penalty for stealing intellectual can reach to a fine of SR250,000, six months of imprisonment and the shutdown of the establishment in question. Stealing a companies’ establishment can lead to a fine of SR50,000 to SR1 million. The Ministry of Commerce and Investment is very strict about protecting commercial trademarks,” said Al-Ghamdi.