JEDDAH: A seminar on intellectual property rights that concluded on Thursday at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for the setting up of a special court to look into cases of copyright violations.
The seminar attributed the increasing number of copyright violations in the Kingdom to a lack of punishment channels to deal with them quickly, a final communiqué said.
Experts attending the seminar noticed that copyright violations cases in the Kingdom are dealt with different parties including the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Customs and the Court of Grievances.
“We need a single authority to deal with copyright cases,” it added.
Majed Garoub, chairman of the Saudi Legal Center for Training, said Saudi authorities had taken action against only eight percent of some 100,000 copyright complaints.
He said the largest number of copyright cases were related to trademarks and names. Violation of copyrights of CDs came second. He said the seminar had taken a number of resolutions to activate the laws and regulations related to copyright protection.
Awad Al-Hobaili, legal consultant at the Jeddah chamber, said the formation of a special court to deal with copyright violations would help reduce such cases by 80 percent. “We can cite a number of successful experiences in other countries in this respect,” he added.
Al-Hobaili said copyright protection is also essential for the scientific and technological achievements of Saudis.
The supervisor of domestic media in the Ministry of Culture and Information Abdul Rahman Al-Hazza told the seminar at its opening ceremony on Tuesday that the ministry was giving great care to the question of copyrights in all aspects of audio-visual artistic production.
“The ministry has been very keen to protect intellectual production since the law of publications was first issued about 28 years ago,” he added.
Al-Hazza said the ministry was monitoring the Kingdom’s 20 air, land and sea entry points as a part of its efforts to protect copyrights. “We also make inspection tours to market places and among peddlers looking for any violations in this area,” he added.
