Article 1 of the Saudi Trademarks Law

This Article is the definitions Article of the Trademarks Law, which is a unified law for the Gulf Cooperation Council states, so its definitions are worded generally to suit each member state. These meanings apply in applying the Law's provisions unless the context of the text requires otherwise.

The Article specifies the following:

• Council states: The states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
• Competent authority: The ministry or body responsible for implementing the Law in the state, that is, the body the trademark owner deals with on registration and other procedures.
• Minister: The minister or head of the authority competent to implement the Law in the state.
• Implementing Regulations: The regulations issued by the Commercial Cooperation Committee to implement the Law, meaning they are issued at the level of the Cooperation Council.
• Register: The trademark register.

The definitions of competent authority and Minister were amended by Royal Decree No. M/49 dated 1/6/1442 AH, so that both definitions now include "the responsible body" and "the head of the competent authority", and not only the ministry and the minister, so that the text allows a body other than a ministry to implement the Law.

The definition of the trademark itself appears in Article 2, which explains that it is anything that takes a distinctive form of names, words, letters, symbols, numbers, drawings, colors or the like, if used or intended to be used to distinguish an establishment's goods or services from others, and that a sound or smell mark may be considered a trademark.

Anyone who needs to know which body to approach, or the procedures for protecting a mark, is advised to consult a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property or commercial cases.