In force
Saudi Patents Law
نظام براءات الاختراع
The Patents Law aims to give full protection to inventions in the Kingdom. It covers the granting authority (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology), what is not considered an invention, patent rights, application procedures, use and exploitation of patents, their term, and compulsory licensing.
- Articles
- 65
- In force
- 65
- Amended
- 4
- Issued
- 29/5/1425 AH
Issued by: مرسوم ملكي رقم م/27 بتاريخ 29 / 5 / 1425 · قرار مجلس الوزراء رقم 159 بتاريخ 17 / 5 / 1425
Each article shows the official Arabic text, which is the only legally binding version, followed by our plain-English explanation.
Browse Patents Law by topic
Subjects and Documents of Protection5 articlesPatent Ownership5 articlesPatent Registration11 articlesPatent Term and Fees5 articlesConditions for a Patent4 articlesPatent Infringement8 articlesLicensing Patent Exploitation5 articlesCompulsory Licensing8 articlesLayout Designs of Integrated Circuits6 articlesPlant Variety Protection6 articlesIndustrial Designs2 articlesPatents and Appeals Committee9 articlesPenalties and Final Provisions5 articles
Articles of the Saudi Patents Law
الفصل الأول: أحكام عامةArticles 1–42
- Article 1The article states that the aim of the law is to provide full protection within the Kingdom for inventions, layout designs of integrated circuits, plant varieties and industrial models.
- Article 2يقصد بالألفاظ والعبارات الآتية أينما وردت في هذا النظام المعاني المبينة أمامها ما لم يقتض السياق خلاف ذلك: المدينة: مدينة الملك عبد العزيز…
- Article 3The article makes King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology the body competent to apply the provisions of the Patents Law and its Implementing Regulations.
- Article 4The article bars granting a protection document where its commercial exploitation would be contrary to Islamic Sharia, harmful to life or to human, animal or plant health, or seriously harmful to the environment.
- Article 5The article makes a protection document a private right of the person in whose name it is issued and transferable, and regulates joint work, priority of filing, and the inventor's right to be named.
- Article 6The article makes ownership of a protection document the employer's in specified cases unless the employment contract provides otherwise, while preserving the worker's right to a special reward.
- Article 7The article lets a person whose subject of protection was taken from them ask the Committee to transfer ownership of the application or document to them; a claim is not heard after five years from grant except on proof of the applicant's bad faith.
- Article 8The article regulates filing an application for a protection document on a prepared form, what is required if it is filed by someone other than the inventor, and recording the application once the requirements are met and the fee is paid.
- Article 9The article lets the applicant make whatever amendments the applicant sees fit to the application, provided they do not go beyond what was disclosed in the original application.
- Article 10The article lets an applicant benefit from the priority of an earlier application within 12 months for patents and plant varieties and 6 months for industrial models, on specified conditions.
- Article 11The article requires the Administration to publish applications for patents and plant patents within 18 months of the filing date, after the prescribed fee is paid.
- Article 12The article requires the Administration to examine recorded applications formally, gives the applicant at most 90 days to complete any missing requirements, failing which the application is treated as if it had not been filed.
- Article 13The article provides that the substantive examination of an application for a patent or plant patent begins once it has been examined formally, as the Regulations specify.
- Article 14The article requires the Administration to issue and publish a decision granting the protection document if the application meets the conditions, or to prepare a reasoned decision of refusal and notify the applicant.
- Article 15The article lets the applicant withdraw the application at any time unless it has been finally decided, with no right to a refund of the fee paid or any other expense.
- Article 16The article requires any assignment of an application or protection document to be in writing, signed by both parties and certified, and not effective against third parties until the change is requested, the fee paid and the change recorded.
- Article 17The article requires the owner of a protection document who disposes of it to another, or whose right to exploit it passes to another, to formally notify that person of any legal procedure concerning the document.
- Article 18The article imposes an annual fee on a protection application or document, doubled if late by three months, with the application or document lapsing on non-payment after a warning.
- Article 19The article sets the protection periods: 20 years for a patent, 10 years for a design certificate and an industrial model certificate, and 20 years for a plant patent, 25 for trees and vines.
- Article 20The article protects a person who in good faith made a product, used a process or exploited a plant variety before the filing date, by allowing that person to continue the same activities without expanding them.
- Article 21The article lets the owner of a protection document license others contractually to exploit it, not effective against third parties until the fee is paid and the license recorded, and not preventing the owner from exploiting it or licensing another.
- Article 22The article allows the Administration to ask the parties to a license contract to amend it so that it is free of abuse of the right, any negative effect on competition, or on the acquisition and dissemination of technology.
- Article 23The article gives the licensee all the acts and privileges of the owner of the document across the Kingdom for the whole protection period unless the contract provides otherwise, and bars the licensee from assigning them unless the contract expressly allows.
- Article 24The article allows the City to grant a third party a compulsory license to exploit a patented invention or an integrated circuit layout design, on set conditions and with fair compensation to the owner.
- Article 25The article allows the City to grant a compulsory license for a plant variety covered by a plant patent on set conditions, including public interest, three years from grant and fair compensation, for two to four years.
- Article 26The article prevents the compulsory licensee from assigning the license to others except together with the enterprise, part of it or its goodwill, and with the City's approval, otherwise the assignment is void.
- Article 27The article allows the City to amend a compulsory license decision if grounds require it; the owner or the beneficiary may request amendment, and the decision to amend or refuse must state its reasons.
- Article 28The article requires the City to cancel a compulsory license if the beneficiary has not exploited it sufficiently within two years, has not paid amounts due within 90 days, or has breached its conditions.
- Article 29The article allows the beneficiary of a compulsory license to relinquish it by a written request to the City; relinquishment takes effect from the date of the City's approval.
- Article 30The article requires decisions granting, amending, withdrawing, transferring or relinquishing compulsory licenses to be recorded in the Administration's records, announced in the Bulletin and notified to the owner of the protection document.
- Article 31The article allows the owner of a protection document to relinquish it in whole or in part by a written request; with a compulsory license in place it is accepted only with the beneficiary's consent or for compelling circumstances, and it takes effect against third parties from publication.
- Article 32The article allows any interested party to challenge before the Committee the decision granting a protection document and ask for its invalidation in whole or in part for breach of the grant conditions.
- Article 33The article provides that a judgment invalidating the grant of a protection document makes the grant treated as if it never existed from its date of issue, with a special rule on license payments and publication of the judgment.
- Article 34The article defines infringement of protected subject matter and empowers the Committee to stop infringement and award compensation and a fine of up to SAR 100,000, doubled for repeat offenses.
- Article 35أ - تكون لجنة من ثلاثة من النظاميين، واثنين من الفنيين، لا تقل مرتبة أي منهم عن الثانية عشرة. ب - يرشح رئيس المدينة الأعضاء. جـ - يصدر…
- Article 36The article sets the Committee's jurisdiction over disputes and challenges to decisions on protection documents and over criminal cases arising from violations of the Law and its regulations.
- Article 37The article regulates how the Committee issues its decisions, requires it to rule even where the text is silent, and allows a grievance before the Board of Grievances within sixty days of notification.
- Article 38The article gives the Committee the right to write to government bodies and request clarifications, and requires the City to provide it, on request, with the documents of the protection applications or subject matter in dispute.
- Article 39The article allows the Committee to use expert bodies on technical matters and lets it decide which litigant bears the costs.
- Article 40The article permits free inspection of protection documents registered in the Administration and their data, and lets any person obtain copies after paying the fee.
- Article 41The article requires Administration employees and Committee members to keep the technical information in protection applications confidential, even after their service, and bars them from obtaining or dealing in protection documents.
- Article 42The article sets the fees due under the Law according to the attached Schedule and allows them to be amended by a Council of Ministers decision on the proposal of the Authority's board of directors.
الفصل الثاني: أحكام خاصة ببراءات الاختراعArticles 43–48
- Article 43The article sets the three conditions for an invention to be granted a patent: novelty, an inventive step and industrial applicability, whether it is a product or an industrial process.
- Article 44The article explains the meaning of an invention's novelty against the prior art, the meaning of the inventive step, and when an invention is industrially applicable.
- Article 45The article excludes from the concept of an invention discoveries, theories, mathematical methods, business methods, plants, animals, and methods of treatment and diagnosis, with specific exceptions.
- Article 46The article requires a patent application to relate to one invention or one inventive concept, and allows it to be divided before a decision while keeping the original filing or priority date.
- Article 47The article gives the patent owner the right to sue before the Committee anyone who exploits the invention in the Kingdom without consent, and defines the forms of exploitation and the non-commercial scientific research exception.
- Article 48The article shifts to the defendant the burden of proving that its product was not made by the patented process, when one of two conditions is met, while taking account of its industrial and commercial secrets.
الفصل الثالث: أحكام خاصة بالتصميمات التخطيطية للدارات المتكاملةArticles 49–53
- Article 49The article allows an application to register an integrated circuit layout design if it has not yet been commercially exploited, or has been commercially exploited for no more than two years anywhere in the world.
- Article 50The article requires that a design be original for a design certificate to be granted, meaning the result of the designer's intellectual effort and not familiar when created, and addresses a design made of familiar elements.
- Article 51The article gives the owner of a design certificate the right to sue anyone who copies, imports, sells or distributes its design in the Kingdom without consent, with an exception for personal and scientific copying.
- Article 52The article limits the rights of a design certificate to commercial acts, and excepts a similar design created independently and an original design resulting from analysis of the protected design.
- Article 53The article excepts from infringement the acts in paragraph (B) of Article 51 when done by someone who did not know the circuit contains a copied design, and requires him to pay fair compensation.
الفصل الرابع: أحكام خاصة بحماية الأصناف النباتية الجديدةArticles 54–58
- Article 54The article sets the conditions for a plant variety to obtain a plant patent: it must be new, distinct, uniform and stable, and a name must be proposed for it.
- Article 55The article defines the conditions for a plant patent: novelty with its periods inside and outside the Kingdom, distinctness, uniformity and stability, and how a plant variety is named.
- Article 56The article gives the plant patent owner the right to sue anyone who exploits the protected variety's propagating material in the Kingdom without consent, and extends the rights to harvested material and derived varieties, with exceptions.
- Article 57The article bars restricting the right arising from a plant patent by any measure taken to regulate the production, control, marketing, import or export of plant variety materials.
- Article 58The article requires the plant patent owner to maintain the variety, supply the City with information and samples and propose an alternative name, and the patent lapses on breach after notice and a grace period.
الفصل الخامس: أحكام خاصة بالنماذج الصناعيةArticles 59–60
- Article 59The article requires that an industrial design be new and distinct from known designs for a certificate to be granted, and defines novelty as not being disclosed to the public before filing or priority.
- Article 60The article gives the owner of an industrial design certificate the right to sue before the Committee anyone who makes, sells or imports for commercial purposes goods embodying its copied design in the Kingdom.
الفصل السادس: أحكام ختاميةArticles 61–65
- Article 61The article punishes anyone who violates the Law's provisions with a fine of up to SAR 50,000, doubled for a repeat offense, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 34.
- Article 62The article provides that the time limits and periods set out in the Law are in accordance with what international agreements provide in this regard.
- Article 63يصدر رئيس المدينة اللائحة التنفيذية لهذا النظام خلال مائة وثمانين يومًا من تاريخ العمل به، وتنشر في الجريدة الرسمية، كما يصدر القرارات…
- Article 64The Law replaces the Patents Law issued by Royal Decree (M/38) dated 10/6/1409 AH, its provisions apply to existing applications and patents, and it repeals whatever conflicts with it.
- Article 65The article provides for publishing the Patents Law in the Official Gazette and putting it into effect thirty days after the date of its publication.