The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property has issued its annual report on the enforcement of intellectual property rights in Saudi Arabia in 2023.

The report showed that the Authority had received more than 2,680 complaints during 2023, including complaints related to copyright and trademark complaints across various sectors. This was a 50% increase in the total number of complaints compared to 2022. Trademark complaints increased by 73%, and copyright complaints increased by 30%. More than 1,000 inspection visits were carried out to commercial establishments in 42 cities and governorates within Saudi Arabia, based on complaints submitted by rights holders.

The Intellectual Property Authority is continuing to use its “Mystery Shopper” process, which contributes to the efficient enforcement of the intellectual property rights system. The enforcement team continuously monitors and surveys commercial and electronic markets, researches violations, in order to collect data on commercial establishments and provide the inspection team with information to target areas and sectors with inspection campaigns and awareness visits. The Mystery Shopper conducted more than 4,700 visits to over 70 commercial centre in 17 cities and governorates, and visited more than 6,000 websites and online stores.

The Authority revealed that 422 suspected shipments were handled, and the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority reported that 60% of customs shipments violated intellectual property regulations and laws. Over 3.4 million products violating intellectual property regulations and laws across various commercial sectors were prevented from being cleared at border crossings.

In the digital space, the Authority has focused on enforcing intellectual property rights for digital content and e-commerce. The number of reported websites reached 4,545, with 81% of the reports involved websites displaying and downloading movies and TV series.

The Authority confirmed that more than 41 million products violating intellectual property rights were seized, more than 16.3 thousand infringing intellectual property content items were removed, and more than 3.4 thousand websites violating the law were blocked. 13,000 establishments were visited during complaint enforcement operations and field and electronic surveys.

During 2023, the Commercial Courts and the Committee for Considering Copyright Violations issued more than 270 judgments and decisions against intellectual property violators, with total fines of nearly 2.2 million Riyals levied.

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