Saudi announces policy for intellectual property as part of attempts to diversify its economy
The biggest economy in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia, has revealed a new intellectual property strategy to encourage investment and foster creativity and innovation.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the National Intellectual Property Strategy, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
According to Prince Mohammed, “We have minds and energies passionate about innovation and creativity, and by enabling them, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia will become a vibrant environment for a knowledge economy based on an integrated intellectual property ecosystem that develops innovative technologies and industries and supports the growth of enterprises.”
The National Intellectual Property Strategy will further encourage investment, produce high-quality jobs, and increase public awareness of the rights of creators and innovators.
As part of its Vision 2030 programme, Saudi Arabia is launching the strategy as it works to diversify its economy away from the oil industry. The kingdom is undertaking construction projects in a variety of industries, like as tourism, aviation, real estate, and entertainment.
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According to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook from October, Saudi Arabia’s economy would increase by 3.2% this year and 7.6% in 2022 as a result of higher oil prices and initiatives to lessen the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. It did so by 3.2% last year.
According to the most recent data from the General Authority for Statistics, the country’s economy expanded by 8.8% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period a year earlier, led by a high increase in both oil and non-oil industries.
There are four pillars on which the National Intellectual Property Strategy is built. According to the SPA, these include IP production, IP administration, IP commercialization, and IP protection.
Work will be done to strengthen cooperation and integration between national bodies as important partners to support the goals of the new strategy in an effort to achieve these pillars.
By encouraging young talent in the nation, the IP creation pillar will increase the production of high-value national intellectual property assets, while the IP protection pillar intends to boost the market economy by defending creative rights, it was stated. The commercialization pillar will help the monarchy expand and draw in new investments.
While this is happening, the administration pillar seeks to increase the value of intellectual property by putting in place a quick and thorough registration process to guarantee efficient management of human innovation.
According to a governance framework that outlines roles and responsibilities, each pillar will have a number of initiatives assigned to government agencies and will be evaluated on a regular basis.
The adoption of NIPST, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), “supports the empowerment of innovators in various fields to build an ambitious country and a diversified and prosperous economy for the kingdom and attracts interested researchers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from Saudi Arabia and around the world towards innovation, creativity, and respect of IP rights.”