Saudi Arabia has warned violators of intellectual property rights with financial fines and the closure of the facility, after monitoring hundreds of content that violates the regulations.
The inspector of the Saudi Intellectual Property Authority, Fahd Al Samaa, said that the Kingdom has imposed fines amounting to 250,000 riyals ($66,000) and closed the facility for violators of these rights.
Al-Sama’ added, in his interview with the government-run Al-Ekhbariya channel, on Monday, that “during the month of January, 317 websites were blocked and 4,635 content that violated intellectual property systems was removed.”
He explained that the penalties for violators “start with issuing a warning and fines amounting to a quarter of a million riyals, closing the facility for a period of two months, and confiscating all works if they are found.”
In a related context, the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property launched a few days ago an awareness campaign entitled “All rights reserved,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency.SPA“.
Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al-Suwailem, CEO of the authority, explained that “intellectual property rights are preserved and their fields vary between written, audio-visual and literary works, and between inventions, trademarks, industrial models, plant varieties and layout designs of integrated circuits.”
Al-Suwailem stressed the keenness to support intellectual property and preserve creative and innovative rights in the Kingdom, believing in the strategic importance of these rights “as an enabler of innovation and creativity and an element in facilitating doing business and achieving a prosperous economy.”
It is noteworthy that the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property was established in 2018 “with the aim of supporting the transformation of the knowledge economy, maintaining the sustainability of research and development, and enhancing indicators of innovation and creativity,” according to “SPA”.
