SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dana Halwani and Leanne Farsi, Derayah LLPC
Disputes arising from copyright infringement are handled 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 infringe - ment. 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 consid - ered a commercial secret, namely where: • the information in its basic constituents or its final form is not generally known, and is dif - ficult 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 safeguard its confidentiality. The obtainment, usage or disclosure of com - mercial secrets without the owner’s consent, through a manner that is deemed to be “incon - sistent with honest commercial practices”, is deemed an abuse of commercial secrets under the Regulation. Activities considered contrary to honest com - mercial practice include: • the breaching of contracts concerning com - mercial secrets; • breaching or encouraging the breaching of confidential 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 compensa - tion for damages they have sustained. The new Law of Trade Names (Royal Decree No M/83 of 19 Rabi Awwal 1446 corresponding to 22 September 2024), which came into effect in April 2025, replaces 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 regis - tration of trade names. The law enables trade names to be reserved prior to registration, for specific durations, which can be extended. Trade name options have been expanded so that trade names may be Arabic, non-Arabic, translit - erated Arabic or alphanumeric. No person may use a registered trade name which belongs to someone else. The Personal Data Protection Regulation (PDPR) (Royal Decree No M/19 of 9 Safar 1443 Hejra corresponding to 16 September 2021) amended by Royal Decree No M/148 of 5 Ramadan 1444 Hejra corresponding to 27 March 2023 governs the collection and processing of data in the King - dom. The regulation places a strong emphasis on obtaining the consent of data owners for the collection of their data, and maintaining trans - parency with data owners regarding how their personal information is processed. Controlling entities, which is to say public bodies, natural persons or private bodies corporate that 8. Data Protection 8.1 Applicable Regulations
731 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook