Saudi Arabia reported a 47 per cent increase in copyright and trademark violations last year, according to a new study.
It comes as authorities in the Kingdom continues to crack down on intellectual property violations and seize offending items.
The war on copyright and trademark abuse is being fought online and in retail outlets.
Saudi trademark and copyright
The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) published its annual report on the enforcement of intellectual-property rights for 2022, which showed that the authority received more than 1,700 complaints, including those related to copyright and trademarks in various sectors, a 47 per cent increase from the total number received in 2021.
The percentage of trademark complaints increased by 490 per cent, while copyright complaints decreased by 37 per cent.
In addition, more than 660 visits were carried out to commercial facilities in 42 cities and governorates across the Kingdom, according to complaints submitted by rights holders.
SAIP said it had activated the “mystery shopper” process, an essential task that contributes to the enforcement of intellectual property rights efficiently and fairly.
Under the program, the enforcement team continuously monitors and surveys commercial and electronic facilities to help it control violations and target regions and sectors with inspection campaigns and awareness visits on IP and its rights.
The mystery shopper made 1,483 visits to more than 60 commercial malls and shops in more than 20 cities and governorates.
SAIP revealed that 211 suspected consignments were processed.
More than 100 violating consignments were prevented from clearing, in cooperation with the Zakat Tax and Customs Authority.
Nearly half (49 per cent) of the total number of suspected consignments were prevented from clearing because of violating IP laws and regulations, while 995 trademarks with a total of 5.4m products were prevented from entering due to violating IP laws and regulations in various commercial sectors at many border crossings.
In cyberspace, SAIP was keen to work on enforcing IP for digital content and e-commerce, as the number of reported sites violating IP rights reached 1,909, and the largest percentage of reports (66 per cent) were for sites displaying and downloading movies and television series.
SAIP confirmed that 12 million products violating IP rights were seized, 58,000 content items violating IP rights were removed, approximately 1,500 copyright-law websites were blocked, and 13,000 facilities were visited during complaints enforcement and field and electronic scanning.
In 2022, the Committee for the Consideration of Violations of the Copyright Protection Law issued 175 dismissal decisions against IP violators, and the total financial fines amounted to SR1,468,550 ($392,000).
SAIP has conducted visits to raise awareness among citizens and workers of IP rights to reduce violations among consumers and sellers, with 2,010 visits to commercial facilities in various regions, cities, and governorates of the Kingdom.
These visits measured the level of awareness of commercial facilities, and it showed that 66.9 per cent are not familiar with intellectual property laws and regulations, 26.2 per cent are familiar to some extent, and only 6.9 per cent are familiar with laws and regulations.
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