Saudi Authority Receives 5,837 Patent Applications in 2022

The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property received 5,837 patent applications at the domestic level and from abroad in 2022, it said in its annual report.

The Saudi regulator noted that it received 40,287 trademark applications from inside and outside the Kingdom last year, along with 838 requests for voluntary registration of copyright works, indicating a 30.33 percent increase from 2021.

The authority added that 43 new names were added to the Locarno Classification for industrial designs.

The Locarno Classification is an international classification system used to classify goods for the purposes of the registration of industrial designs, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The report added that SAIP received 1,508 applications for industrial designs from the Kingdom and abroad, up 7.71 percent compared to 2021.

SAIP added that it recorded 27 applications for integrated circuit layout designs, up 35 percent from 2021.

It was in December 2022 that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the National Intellectual Property Strategy to support the Kingdom’s economy based on innovation and creativity.

“We have minds and energies that are passionate about innovation and creativity, and by enabling them, the Kingdom will be a fertile environment for the knowledge economy through an integrated intellectual property system that supports the development of innovative technologies and industries and contributes to the growth of enterprises,” said the crown prince.

The SPA report added that the National Intellectual Property Strategy is based on four basic pillars: Generation, management, commercial investment, and protection of intellectual property.

Later in December, Saudi Arabia allocated a budget of SR1 billion ($267 million) to support the strategy. This fund has been agreed to be distributed over a five-year period until 2028.

This strategy will be implemented through 12 initiatives which include 54 projects, according to Sami Al-Sudais, the vice president for Intellectual Property Policies and Partnerships at the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property.

He further noted that the national strategy proposals are being executed by 37 governmental and private agencies.

SAIP provides its services through official channels, including its website (saip.gov.sa), direct number (920021421), email (saip@saip.gov.sa) and through its social media accounts.

The intellectual property authority defined written works as those that are expressed in words of any kind, such as books and brochures of a literary, scientific or artistic nature. SAIP added that books, poems, novels, articles, speeches, dissertations, schoolbooks and references, brochures and broadcast texts are all included in the optional registration.