Intellectual Property index: Saudi Arabia ranked 21st out of 45

Intellectual property rights deliver jobs, innovation, safety and access to economies of every shape and size. The Index is a constructive tool to help business and policy makers measure an economy’s overall IP environment.

Saudi Arabia remains near the middle in an international Intellectual Property (IP) index by being ranked 21st out of 45 countries, according to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC).

Report depicted IP enforcement through Ministerial Decision No. 1277, 2004 provides border measures relating to the infringement of IP rights. Article 2 provides customs officers with an ex officio authority: “The Customs Authorities may suspend the clearance of goods suspected of bearing imitated trademarks upon having prima facie evidence to this effect.” It is not clear the extent to which this provision applies to goods in transit. Since 2009, Saudi customs authorities have published annual reports. These reports include statistics on customs seizures of counterfeit goods. They do not, however, include data on countries of origin

Saudi Arabia scores low in its participation in and ratification of international treaties because it is not a contracting party to any of the IP treaties included in the Index apart from the Patent Law Treaty, to which it acceded in 2013.

Saudi Arabia scored 15.98 out 35, report highlighted strengths and weakness as follows;

Key Areas of Strength

1. Relatively strong patenting environment – CIIs allowed
2. 2013 patent enforcement mechanism in place for bio-pharmaceuticals through a linkage system
3. Ex officio authority in place for customs officials

Key Areas of Weakness

• Significant gaps in copyright framework—chiefly relating to protection online
• Increasing number of localization requirements
• Uncertainty over enforcement of guidelines for use of only licensed software by government agencies
• Persistently high levels of physical and online piracy—latest software piracy rates at 49%
• Industry reports of a lack of practical availability of RDP—indirect reliance has been allowed when reviewing follow-on products
• Limited participation in international IP treaties

The report said it includes 90% of global gross domestic product, and grades countries on patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, enforcement, and international treaties. The U.S., the U.K., Germany, Japan, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Singapore, South Korea and Italy completed the top 10 ranks. Among the BRICS countries China was ranked 27th, South Africa (33rd), Brazil (32nd) and Russia (23rd).

Report said, Saudi Arabia introduced a patent linkage system in 2013. Under Circular Letter No. 7448, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority requires follow-on generic applicants to submit a letter from the Saudi Patent Office and/or the Gulf Cooperation Council Patent Office indicating that no registered patent exclusivity is or will be in place for the relevant reference product at the time of marketing approval. This positive initiative greatly reduces the risk that follow-on bio-pharmaceutical products will be infringing a reference product’s exclusivity period.

Report reflected that in 2005 Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s decision No. 3218 “Regulations for the Protection of Confidential Commercial Information” provides specific protection for submitted clinical research data as part of a bio-pharmaceutical market registration application. Article 5 of the regulations provides a clear and unambiguous protection term of five years from the date of approval and states that relevant Saudi authorities “shall undertake to protect such information against unfair commercial use, for a minimum period of five years from the date of obtaining the approval.” The existence of this RDP is a positive feature of Saudi Arabia’s national IP environment. However, uncertainty exists over the actual availability of this protection as industry reports have suggested that follow-on products have been approved through the use of “indirect reliance” on submitted clinical research data. International standards and best practices for RDP are quite clear on this subject: neither direct nor indirect reliance on submitted clinical test data should be used to approve follow-on products within the specified and offered term of protection. Should reports of this practice persist, Saudi Arabia’s score on this indicator will be reduced to 0.

It added Saudi copyright law provides for basic exclusive rights and protection of creative works. Article 9 of the Copyright Law Royal Decree No. M/41 includes a reference to the exclusive right to communication of a given work to the public “via any possible means.” However, no specific law or regulation is in place that provides a notification and take-down mechanism for infringing online content, nor is any similar legal framework in place to specifically address the issue of online infringement. The blocking of web content, including copyright-infringing content, occurs sporadically by the Ministry of Culture and Information. No official or public guidelines are in place. Physical and online piracy remains a significant challenge to rights holders in Saudi Arabia. Industry reports suggest that 90% of music and film content in Saudi Arabia is pirated. And the estimated rate of software piracy by the Business Software Alliance for 2015 was 49%, a marginal change from the 2009 estimated rate of 51%..

Why is IP Important?

Intellectual property (IP) contributes enormously to our national and state economies. Dozens of industries across our economy rely on the adequate enforcement of their patents, trademarks, and copyrights, while consumers use IP to ensure they are purchasing safe, guaranteed products. We believe IP rights are worth protecting, both domestically and abroad. This is why:

Intellectual Property Creates and Supports High-Paying Jobs

• IP-intensive industries employ over 45 million Americans, and hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
• Jobs in IP-intensive industries are expected to grow faster over the next decade than the national average.
• The average worker in an IP-intensive industry earned about 46% more than his counterpart in a non-IP industry.

Intellectual Property Drives Economic Growth and Competitiveness

• America’s IP is worth $6.6 trillion, more than the nominal GDP of any other country in the world.
• IP-intensive industries account for over 1/3– or 38.2%– of total U.S. GDP.
• IP accounts for 52% of all U.S. merchandise exports- which amounts to nearly $842 billion.
• The direct and indirect economic impacts of innovation are overwhelming, accounting for more than 40% of U.S. economic growth and employment.

Strong and Enforced Intellectual Property Rights Protect Consumers and Families

• Strong IP rights help consumers make an educated choice about the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of their purchases.
• Enforced IP rights ensure products are authentic, and of the high-quality that consumers recognize and expect.
• IP rights foster the confidence and ease of mind that consumers demand and markets rely on.

Intellectual Property Helps Generate Breakthrough Solutions to Global Challenges

• Nearly all of the hundreds of products on the World Health Organization’s Essential Drug List, which are critical to saving or improving people’s lives around the globe, came from the R&D-intensive pharmaceutical industry that depends on patent protections.
• Innovative agricultural companies are creating new products to help farmers produce more and better products for the world’s hungry while reducing the environmental impact of agriculture.
• IP-driven discoveries in alternative energy and green technologies will help improve energy security and address climate change.

Intellectual Property Rights Encourage Innovation and Reward Entrepreneurs

• Risk and occasional failure are the lifeblood of the innovation economy. IP rights incentivize entrepreneurs to keep pushing for new advances in the face of adversity.
• IP rights facilitate the free flow of information by sharing the protected know-how critical to the original, patented invention. In turn, this process leads to new innovations and improvements on existing ones.
• American’s Founding Fathers so recognized the importance of innovation and ensured that strong IP rights for authors and inventors are protected in the U.S. Constitution, thus making America the world’s entrepreneurial leader— a fact borne out by the overwhelming number of patents, copyrights and trademarks filed by the U.S. annually.

Bringing all of these important and diverse points together is the fact that protecting IP is a non-partisan issue that is shared by a broad coalition of interests. These rights are embraced by all sectors of industry—small, medium and large companies alike—and by labor organizations, consumer groups, and other trade associations we bring together.

References :

https://www.theglobalipcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/SaudiArabia.pdf

https://www.theglobalipcenter.com/resources/why-is-ip-important/