RIYADH: The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property has issued its annual report for preserving intellectual property rights for 2023, showing that it received over 2,680 complaints related to copyrights, including trademarks.
The growing awareness of the need to adhere to laws and regulations that govern the ownership, use and protection of intellectual property contributed to a 50 percent increase in the total number of complaints in 2023, the authority said.
Trademark complaints rose by 73 percent, and copyright complaints by 30 percent, it added.
More than 1,000 inspection tours of commercial establishments were conducted in 42 cities and governorates across the Kingdom, based on complaints from copyright holders.
The authority said that it continues to carry out the mystery shopper program, which is vital for enforcing compliance with intellectual property rights.
The enforcement team continuously monitors and surveys commercial and electronic markets, identifying violations and gathering data on commercial establishments to provide the inspection team with information that supports its tasks.
Mystery shoppers made more than 4,700 visits to more than 70 malls in 17 cities and governorates, and visited over 6,000 websites and online stores.
The report said that 422 suspicious shipments were processed, with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority reporting that 60 percent of the shipments were found to violate intellectual property laws and regulations.
More than 3.4 million products violating intellectual property regulations failed to receive clearance at various border crossings.
In the digital space, the authority focused on enforcing intellectual property rights in digital content and e-commerce. The number of reported websites reached 4,545, with the majority (81 percent) concerning sites that host movies and TV shows.
The authority said that more than 41 million products infringing on intellectual property rights were confiscated, more than 16,300 content items were removed and over 3,400 non-compliant websites were blocked.
In the course of assessing compliance with intellectual property rights, 13,000 establishments were visited, and field and electronic surveys were carried out.
In 2023, commercial courts and the Committee for Resolving Intellectual Property Disputes issued more than 270 rulings against intellectual property violators, with total fines amounting to about SR2.2 million ($586,000).
