Article 6 of the Saudi Copyright Law

This article distinguishes between three cases of a work in which more than one person takes part:

First: a joint work whose owners' contributions cannot be separated.

• All of them are equal partners in ownership of the work.
• None of them may alone exercise the author's rights (such as publication, translation or licensing), unless they agree in writing otherwise.
• However, each one of them alone may take precautionary and urgent measures if the work is infringed, and claim compensation for his share of the harm he suffered.

Second: a joint work in which each partner's contribution can be separated (such as a book in which a different author wrote each chapter): each partner may exploit his own part separately, provided this does not harm the exploitation of the joint work, unless they agree otherwise.

Third: a collective work, which under the definition in Article 1 is a work produced by a group under the direction of a natural or legal person who undertakes to publish it, and in which their work is merged. Here the person who directed or organized the creation of the work has the right to exercise the author's rights alone.

The practical lesson is that partners in any joint work benefit from organizing their relationship in a written agreement that sets out who holds the right of publication and exploitation, because the law makes a written agreement the way around the rule against acting alone. A lawyer who specializes in intellectual property and copyright can help draft such an agreement.