Patent registration in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. Saudi Arabia is considered both a regional and middle power. The Saudi economy is the largest in the Middle East and eighteenth-largest in the world. Saudi Arabia also has one of the world’s youngest populations. Saudi Arabia is also a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council and an active and founding member of the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League, and OPEC. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Saudi Arabia.
Patent in Saudi Arabia
According to Saudi Arabia law, a patent in this country is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor. With a patent, the inventor, or the patentee will have the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in a country, or importing the invention into a country, along with other rights to protect their best interests.
To be patentable in Saudi Arabia, an invention must satisfy the requirement of new, inventive, and industrially applicability.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the subjects that are patentable in Saudi Arabia are:
- Discoveries, laws of nature, and mathematical methods;
- Aesthetic designs;
- Systems, rules, and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management, computer programs;
- Presentation of data and abstract ideas.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Saudi Arabia
The necessary documents for patent registration in Saudi Arabia include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s names, addresses, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
The procedure for patent registration in Saudi Arabia
To obtain a patent in Saudi Arabia, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Saudi Arabia.
After receiving the application, examiners at the IP Office will conduct examinations to check if the application complies with the requirement of the law and there are no other applications with similar inventions in the system.
The formal examination will be conducted first. Then, the patent application is published publicly in the Official Gazette,
The substantive examination will be conducted later when the fee for such examination has been paid in full within 3 months from the notification date by the Office to the applicant regarding this fee.
If the examiners deemed that the application is registrable, the issue decision will be granted and the patentee will obtain ownership of the patent for 20 years counting from the filing date.
The grant fee should be paid together with publication fee within 90 days from the notification by the Office.
To maintain the validity, the patentee needs to pay annuities which should be completed by the end of January each year.
However, if the payment can’t be made in that period, the patentee will be provided with 3 more months from the deadline to pay the fee with no surcharge. The surcharge will be calculated if the patentee misses the first grace period of 3 months and pay within the second grace period of 3 months.
You can see a list of Saudi Arabia IP firms here.