SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dana Halwani and Leanne Farsi, Derayah LLPC
• protection of copyright for the author of a work lasts for the duration of their life and for 50 years following their death; • protection for works where the author is a corpo - rate entity, or where their name is unknown, lasts 50 years from the date of the first publication of the work; • the protection period for sound works, audio-visual works, films, collective works and computer pro - grams lasts 50 years from the date of the first show or publication of the work, regardless of republica - tion; • protection for applied art (handcrafted or manu - factured) and photographs lasts 25 years from the date of publication; • protection for broadcasting organisations lasts 20 years from the date of the first transmission of a programme or broadcast materials; and • protection for the producers of audio recordings and performances lasts 50 years from the date of performance or the first recording, as the case may be. Disputes arising from copyright infringement are han - dled by the Commercial Courts. Infringers of copyright may be punished with a fine of up to SAR250,000 for first-time offenders, which may be doubled to SAR500,000 for repeated infringement. 7.5 Others The Regulations for the Protection of Confidential Commercial Information, issued by the Minister of Commerce and Industry’s decision No 3218 dated 25 Rabi Awwal 1426 Hejra corresponding to 4 May 2005, as amended by His Excellency’s decision No 431 dated 1 Jumada Awwal 1426 Hejra corresponding to 8 June 2005, enumerate a list of situations where information is considered a commercial secret, name - ly where: • the information in its basic constituents or its final form is not generally known, and is difficult to obtain by practitioners of the type of business to which the information pertains; • the information is commercially valuable due to its confidentiality; or • the owner of the information takes steps to safe - guard its confidentiality.
The obtainment, usage or disclosure of commercial secrets without the owner’s consent, through a man - ner that is deemed to be “inconsistent with honest commercial practices”, is deemed an abuse of com - mercial secrets under the Regulation. Activities considered contrary to honest commercial practice include: • the breaching of contracts concerning commercial secrets; • breaching or encouraging the breaching of confi - dential information; and • obtaining commercial secrets from a third party who is known to have obtained the information through one of these activities. Persons harmed by an abuse of commercial secrets may file a lawsuit to claim compensation for damages they have sustained. The new Law of Trade Names (Royal Decree No M/83 of 19 Rabi Awwal 1446 corresponding to 22 Septem - ber 2024), which came into effect in April 2025, replac - es the previous Law of Trade Names (Royal Decree No M/15 of 12 Sha’ban 1420 Hejra corresponding to 20 November 1999), and regulates the reservation and registration of trade names. The law enables trade names to be reserved prior to registration, for spe - cific durations, which can be extended. Trade name options have been expanded so that trade names may be Arabic, non-Arabic, transliterated Arabic or alpha - numeric. No person may use a registered trade name which belongs to someone else.
8. Data Protection 8.1 Applicable Regulations
The Personal Data Protection Regulation (PDPR) (Royal Decree No M/19 of 9 Safar 1443 Hejra corre - sponding to 16 September 2021) amended by Royal Decree No M/148 of 5 Ramadan 1444 Hejra corre - sponding to 27 March 2023 governs the collection and processing of data in the Kingdom. The regulation places a strong emphasis on obtaining the consent of data owners for the collection of their data, and
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