Article 16 of the Saudi Copyright Law

This article deals with a case in which a right holder refuses to make available a work that people need. It allows the Minister to grant another person a publishing license for the work on two general conditions: that a period set by the Implementing Regulations for each case has passed, and that the Minister considers that the public interest requires publication. This applies in four cases:

1. Copies of the work published in its original language are not available in the Kingdom from the right holder to meet the needs of the public or of school and university teaching at a price close to that of similar works, after he has refused to provide them.
2. All editions of the original work or its Arabic translation are out of print and the right holder has not made it available after being asked to.
3. No translation of the work has been published by the holder of the translation right or with his permission, where the purpose is to benefit from it in educational curricula.
4. The heirs of a Saudi author, or whoever succeeds him, refuse to exercise the rights that passed to them under Article 11 (which passes the author's rights to his heirs except modification and deletion), within one year of the request, if they have no acceptable excuse.

End of the license: it ceases to be valid if the right holder publishes the work or the translation himself or with his permission.

Right holders' compensation: the Minister may set a financial reward to be paid by the licensee to the right holders for each license, and they may challenge his decision before the Board of Grievances.

The Implementing Regulations set the procedures and conditions for requesting a compulsory license. A person who wishes to request a license or object to a reward may consult a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property and copyright.