Article 24 of the Saudi Copyright Law

This article identifies who monitors the application of the law and what their powers are. The competent employees of the Ministry take charge of:

• Catching violations of the provisions of the law.
• Visiting establishments that use intellectual works in their activities, namely media and commercial establishments, warehouses, and public and private institutions.
• Investigating these violations.
• Seizing any evidence, such as imitation copies or devices used in copying.

These employees have judicial police status, so what they catch and seize is relied on to prove the violation.

Note that the scope of visits is wide: it is not limited to libraries and software shops, but covers any public or private institution that uses intellectual works in its activities, such as companies that use software in their business.

Limits of the power: the Implementing Regulations set the procedures and rules these employees must follow, and the article itself does not detail these procedures.

What the employees catch is then presented to the Committee competent to consider violations, whose formation Article 25 regulates. A person whose establishment was subject to a violation being caught may consult a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property and copyright to learn his position.