In this Law, the following terms shall have the meanings assigned thereto, unless the context requires otherwise: Work: Any literary, scientific, or artistic work.

• Joint Work: A work composed by two or more natural or corporate persons whether the contribution of each is separable or not.

• Collective Work: A work collectively composed by a group pursuant to the instruction of a person, natural or corporate, who undertakes its publication under his name or administration, where the work of the contributors is integrated in the general objective sought by that natural or corporate person, so that the contribution of each of the participants may not be separated or singled out.

• Audio Work: Any audio fixation of a specific performance or sound, regardless of the means of fixation.

• Audio-Visual Work: Any work produced for simultaneous audio and visual use, consisting of a series of related images, accompanied by sound, recorded on an appropriate means, and shown by suitable devices.

• Derived Work: Work based on a pre-existing work.

• Author: The person who creates a work.

• Performers: The persons who act, recite, sing, play roles, or participate in performing by any other means in literary or artistic works.

• Publication: Making copies of a work to meet public need.

• Copying: Producing a copy or more of a literary, artistic, or scientific work on material means, including any audio or visual recording.

• Folklore: All literary, artistic, or scientific works which are assumed to have been created on Saudi territory and transmitted from one generation to the next, and which constitute part of the traditional Saudi cultural and artistic heritage.

• Broadcasting: Transmission of a work, performance, or audio or visual recording to the public, using wired or wireless methods or any other means of transmission, to be received by the public, including transmission via satellite.

• Committee: The competent committee formed to review violations resulting from the implementation of the provisions of this Law.

• Authority: Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property. Board: Board of Directors of the Authority.

• Implementing Regulations: Implementing Regulations of this Law.

• This Law shall protect works created in the fields of literature, arts, and sciences, irrespective of their type, means of expression, importance, or purpose of authorship, such as:

• 1. Written materials like books, booklets, and the like.

• 2. Works which are verbally delivered like lectures, speeches, poetry, songs, and the like.

• 3. Dramatic works, plays, shows, and similar presentations which involve motion, sound, or both.

• 4. Works which are prepared for broadcasting purposes or are presented through broadcasting.

• 5. Drawings, works of visual art, architecture, decorative art, artistic embroidery, and the like.

• 6. Audio and audio-visual works.

• 7. Applied art works, whether handcrafted or manufactured.

• 8. Photographic works and the like.

• 9. Illustrations, geographical maps, designs, plans, sketches, and visual works related to geography, topography, architecture, and science.

• 10. Three dimensional works of geography, topography, architecture, or science.

• 11. Computer programs.

• 12. Protection shall include the title of a work, if it is creatively unique, and not a common expression indicating the subject matter of the work.

• This Law shall also protect:

  • 1. works of translation;

  • 2. works of abridgement, modification, illustration, editing, or any other form of alteration;

  • 3. encyclopedias and anthologies which are deemed creative with respect to the selection of content or arrangement, whether they are literary, artistic, or scientific works;

  • 4. compilations of folkloric works and expressions and selections therefrom, if such compilations are creative as to the selection or arrangement of their contents; and

  • 5. databases, whether they are mechanically readable or can be read in any other manner, if they are creative as to the selection or arrangement of their contents.

• Copyright protection enjoyed by the authors of the works mentioned in the above paragraphs shall in no way jeopardize the protection enjoyed by the authors of the original works.

• Protection prescribed by this Law shall not cover the following:

  • 1. Laws and judicial judgments, decisions of administrative bodies, international agreements, and all official documents, as well as the official translations thereof, subject to the provisions concerning the circulation of such documents.

  • 2. Daily news or news-like events that are published in newspapers, magazines, periodicals, or broadcasts.

  • 3. Ideas, procedures, work methods, concepts of mathematical sciences, axioms, and abstract facts.

• 1. An author is any person who publishes a work attributed to him by mentioning his name on the work or by any other means used to attribute works to their authors, unless there is evidence to the contrary.

• 2. The publisher whose name appears on the work shall be the representative of the author, if the work is published under a pseudonym or anonymously.

• 3. Authors of audio works and audio-visual works shall be the persons who participated in the creation of such works, such as:

  • a) author of the text;

  • b) scenarist;

  • c) dialogue writer;

  • d) director; and

  • e) composer.

1. When two or more persons participate in the authorship of a work in such a way that the contribution of each in the work cannot be separated, they shall all be considered equal partners in the ownership of the work, and none of them may independently exercise the author’s rights prescribed by this Law, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing. Each of the participants in authorship shall have the right to protective and summary procedures upon infringement on the work and shall have the right to claim for compensation for his share, against the damage he incurs as a result of such infringement.

2. When two or more persons collectively participate in the authorship of a work in such a manner that their contribution to the collective work can be separated, each party shall have the right to individually exploit his part, provided that no damage is caused to the exploitation of the collective work, unless otherwise agreed upon.

3. A natural or corporate person who directs or organizes the creation of a collective work shall have the sole right to exercise the copyright.

1. Folklore shall be the property of the State, and the Authority shall exercise the copyright pertaining thereto.

2. It shall be prohibited to import or distribute copies of folkloric works, copies of their translations, or others which are produced outside the Kingdom without a license from the Authority.