The Board of Directors of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) has decided to designate the name “Saudi Arabia” as public property of the state. Consequently, any trademark registration application that includes this name must adhere to newly approved controls.
These controls stipulate that the applicant for trademark registration must be a governmental entity, or a special regulatory entity, or the trademark must be linked to a significant and distinctive real estate or service project. These controls also apply to requests for the transfer of ownership of a trademark registered under these guidelines or any other legal transactions. The rules also apply to applications for any trademark that includes the name “Saudi Arabia,” “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” or any symbol or meaning that refers to the state in Arabic or any other language.
The name “Saudi Arabia” must be a component of the trademark, not its essential element.
The authority’s decision also adopts the names of cities, regions, and public places in Saudi Arabia as state property. Trademark applications containing any of these names must follow specific guidelines: the name of the city, region, or public place should be a component of the trademark, not the primary element. Using these names in a trademark should not cause any confusion about the origin or source of goods or services.
The authority emphasized that registering a trademark under these guidelines does not grant exclusive rights to the owner over a specific name, nor does it allow them to prevent others from using the name.