Crown Prince launches National Intellectual Property Strategy

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Prime Minister, Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), launched today, Dec. 22, the National Intellectual Property Strategy (NIPST), a key enabler for achieving the Vision 2030 objectives, Saudi Press Agency reported.

“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 contributes to growth of enterprises. The National Intellectual Property Strategy will further enable stimulating investment, create high quality jobs, and raise awareness of creators and innovators rights,” the Crown Prince said.

It aims to build an intellectual property system that supports innovation and creativity-based economy through creating a value chain of intellectual property that drives innovation and creativity competition and backs economic growth to help Saudi Arabia become a leader in intellectual property (IP) field.

The strategy is based on four pillars. IP Creation, IP Administration, IP Commercialization, and IP Protection. In order to achieve these pillars, the cooperation and integration with national stakeholders will be strengthened as key partners to support innovation, creativity, and investment growth worldwide through NIPST objectives, which enhances Saudi Arabia capabilities to create IP assets of economic and social value.

Building on the importance of IP creation and Saudi creative minds and young talents that innovate in various fields and other competitive advantages, IP Creation has been one of the pillars of NIPST, which aims to enhance the creation of national high value IP assets.

To respect intellectual property rights and enhance the value of protection of creative rights, the pillar of IP protection is one of the important pillars of NIPST. It aims at stimulating the market economy through intellectual property protection.

To contribute to the growth and attraction of investments in of Saudi Arabia and based on the Kingdom's investments in cities and projects of the future, innovation and creativity such as The Line and Neom and its distinctive geographical location and strong digital infrastructure, the IP Commercialization pillar was adopted to enhance the competitiveness of IP based products through the utilization of intellectual property and maximizing its impact.

To ensure effective management of human innovations, the intellectual property management came as a national strategic pillar of IP. It aims to improve the value of IP by setting a fast and high-quality system for IP registration.

Each pillar will also have a number of initiatives assigned to government agencies and is measured periodically, according to a governance framework that defines roles and responsibilities, including decision-making on important issues related to the implementation of NIPST projects and supporting thereof.

The adoption of NIPST supports the empowerment of innovators in various fields to build an ambitious country and a diversified and prosperous economy for Saudi Arabia and attracts interested researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators from Saudi Arabia and around the world towards innovation, creativity and respect of IP rights.