SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Saud Alromi, Mostafa Ihab, Mohamed Ramadan and Saleh Albadry, Mohammed AlDhabaan & Partners Eversheds Sutherland
PIs Practically speaking, PI proceedings do not involve the appointment of court experts. 1.13 Use of Experiments There is no mechanism to adduce results from experi ‑ ments in order to prove or disprove infringement or validity. Additionally, using experiments is not com ‑ There is no specific discovery and disclosure pro ‑ cess for patent litigation in Saudi Arabia. Discovery and disclosure are not actually specifically addressed in Saudi Arabian law. However, parties are required to prove their cases by submitting the evidence they have in their possession either in the form of docu ‑ ments or submitting dispositions (to be accepted by the court). Additionally, a party can ask the court to order the counterparty to submit documents proving evidence in their possession in certain circumstances. 1.15 Defences and Exceptions to Patent Infringement Defences and Exceptions mon in Saudi Arabian courts. 1.14 Discovery/Disclosure In Saudi Arabian law, several defences and exceptions are available in infringement actions. Some of the key defences and exceptions are as follows. • Invalidity: a common defence where the defendant argues that the patent or intellectual property right in question is invalid. Article 32 of the Patent Law provides that any party with an interest may chal ‑ lenge the decision granting a protection document before the Committee for Reviewing Patent Dis ‑ putes, and seek total or partial revocation, relying upon the violation of the stipulated conditions for granting the protection document. • Consent/licence: if the alleged infringer has obtained permission or a licence from the rights holder, this can serve as a defence against infringe ‑ ment claims under Article 21 of the Patent Law. • Exhaustion: once a patented product is sold by or with the consent of the patent owner, the patent owner’s control over the product is exhausted, and the buyer is free to use or resell the product. • Compulsory licence: under certain conditions, the government can grant a compulsory licence to use
points the court sees fit. Court-appointed experts owe a duty to the court to provide impartial and unbiased opinions. Party-Appointed Experts It is not common for both sides to have their own experts as the court will eventually appoint its own expert when needed. However, in very complex tech ‑ nical issues, parties appoint experts independently so that they can have a reference when they are working with the court-appointed experts. Khibra Portal Courts appoint experts through the Khibra portal, which is a portal operated by the Saudi Arabian gov ‑ ernment that includes a list of registered experts in different fields. Whenever the court decides to appoint an expert in a specific case, it electronically refers the decision to appoint the expert to the Khibra portal while specifying the scope of the expert mission. Since 2024, commercial and general courts have mainly relied on the Khibrah platform as the sole mechanism for appointing and supervising court experts in all cases, including pharmaceutical pat ‑ ent cases. The platform facilitates the appointment of accredited experts and enables structured com ‑ munication, report submission and deadline monitor ‑ ing. As a result, expert evidence now plays a more central role in infringement and validity assessments. This represents a procedural development in current litigation practice rather than a change in substantive law. The Khibra portal will then refer the scope to rel ‑ evant registered experts while asking them to submit their technical and financial proposals to complete the mission. Once the Khibra portal receives the technical and financial proposals they will send them over to the parties to the case, who will be granted the opportu ‑ nity to exclude one of the proposals. The Khibra portal will then automatically choose one of the experts to complete the mission. Technical or Scientific Advisors Courts in Saudi Arabia do not appoint technical or scientific advisors and only appoint experts when needed.
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