According to the popular Arab News, following a seminar on Intellectual Property Rights in Saudi Arabia, the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for the setting up of a special court to look into cases of copyright violations.
It seems that at present copyright violations cases in the Kingdom are dealt with by different parties including the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Customs and the Court of Grievances.
According to Majed Garoub, chairman of the Saudi Legal Center for Training, until now, Saudi authorities has taken action against only some eight thousand out of 100,000 IP complaints.
The most common problem is trademark infringement and domain name problems on the internet. CD related copyright issues are also prevalent. s came second. The seminar has passed resolutions to activate the laws and regulations related to copyright protection.
Based on the success in other countries, Awad Al-Hobaili, legal consultant at the Jeddah chamber believes that a special court to deal with copyright violations would reduce such cases by 80 percent. He is also in favor of patents for technological achievement.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture and Information claims to be addressing the question of copyrights in all aspects of audio-visual artistic production.
We note that where there is a will, such as with Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, the kingdom has been remarkably effective in preventing circulation of boot-leg publications. Nevertheless, we applaud the Saudis on these statements and invite them to join us in regional cooperation to the benefit of all.
