Saudi Arabia Patents FAQ

Law of Patents, Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs (promulgated by Royal Decree No. M/27 of 29/5/1425H

Yes

Yes

Yes

Patents should be:

• New;
• Involve an inventive step;
• Industrially applicable if it is possible to apply it in agriculture, fishing, services, handcrafts or any kind of industry in the broadest sense of the word;
• Do not violate the provisions of Islamic Sharia’ (Law), public order, ethics, causing serious damage to the environment, or damage human, animal, plantation life or health.

The below cannot be registered as patents:

• Discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods, and computer programs.
• Schemes, rules, and methods for doing business, performing purely mental acts, or playing games.
• Plant varieties and species of animals, and biological processes for the production of plants or animals with the exception of microbiological processes and the products thereof.
• Methods of surgical or therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body and methods of diagnosis applied to the human or animal body with the exception of products used in any of these methods.
• Varieties of plants or species of animals.

The employer shall be the owner of the protection document, unless the work contract stipulates otherwise, where its subject matter results from the execution of a contract, or an obligation providing for exerting efforts to develop it, or if the employer proves that the employee would not have developed the subject matter of the protection had he not used facilities, means or data made available through his employment.

This shall be without prejudice to the employee’s right to receive a special award to be agreed upon with the consent of both parties, or assessed by the Committee in light of the various circumstances of the contract of employment, and the economic importance of the subject matter of the protection. Any special agreement depriving the employee of this right shall be null and void.

An application for a protection document filed by the employee within two years from the date of termination of employment shall be deemed as if submitted during the employment.

The applicant may introduce the amendments he deems fit to his application if such amendments shall not constitute a substantive modification to the contents of the original application prior to issuance of acceptance decision.

The applicant may withdraw his application at any time unless it has been finally decided upon. However, such withdrawal shall not give the right to recover the fees paid or any other expense.

Yes

Yes, within 12 months from the first filing date.

Paper

Yes, the patent must be used in Saudi Arabia within three years from the date of grant; otherwise the patent will be subject to compulsory licensing.