The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) has delivered 19,990 different actions via its virtual platforms and provided 17,546 actions to its individual and institutional customers since the declaration of the precautionary and preventive measures against the Coronavirus. SAIP also organized 44 sessions of quasi-judicial committees to adjudicate violations of intellectual property rights. This is in addition to providing training courses for more than 500 beneficiaries from 28 government and private sectors. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked among the top ten countries in the world in benefiting from the WIPO distance courses by training 1,445 male and female trainees during the period from January 2020 to May 2020. SAIP announced that, since the declaration by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of the precautionary and preventive measures against the Coronavirus, it has received a set of requests related to IP registration, examination, and amendment, including 9,331 trademark actions, 2,452 patent actions, 948 industrial design actions and 423 copyright and neighboring rights actions. SAIP also announced that as many as 38,293 customer requests were received by SAIP via direct communication, phone calls, e-mail and support portal at SAIP website (www.saip.gov.sa). Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, SAIP has taken several initiatives to mitigate the financial and economic impacts on its customers. These initiatives include the extension of the statutory service deadlines provided for IP applicants until May 30, 2020.
