Article 4 of the Saudi Patents Law

This article sets a general restriction on granting any protection document, whether a patent, a design certificate, a plant patent or an industrial model certificate. The test here is not the quality of the innovation but the effect of exploiting it commercially.

A protection document is not granted in two cases:

1. Contrary to Sharia: if commercial exploitation of the subject of protection would be contrary to Islamic Sharia (paragraph A).
2. Harm: if its commercial exploitation would be harmful to life, or to human, animal or plant health, or seriously harmful to the environment (paragraph B).

Note that in paragraph (B), the text requires the harm to the environment to be serious, whereas harm to life and health is mentioned without this qualification.

The body that applies this provision is the body competent to apply the law under Article 3, that is, the City. The article does not specify how this contravention or harm is to be assessed; that is left to the examination procedures in the law and its Regulations.

This article comes before the provisions on ownership of the protection document in Article 5, since the private right that article establishes arises only for a document that has actually been issued.

If you have an innovation that may raise these issues, consult a lawyer specializing in intellectual property and patents before applying.