Intellectual property owners received a boost late last year from none other than Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who announced the launch of the country’s National Intellectual Property Strategy (NIPST) to support the Kingdom’s economy based on innovation and creativity. Atalayer reported in December that the strategy includes plans to establish “an IP value chain that stimulates the competitiveness of innovation and creativity and supports economic growth for the Saudi Kingdom to become a leader in the field of IP.” 

“We have passionate minds and energies for innovation and creativity, and by enabling them, the Kingdom will be a fertile environment for the knowledge economy through an integrated Intellectual Property system that supports the development of innovative technologies and industries and contributes to the growth of businesses,” the crown prince said. 

The NIPST is based on four basic pillars: IP generation or creation, IP management or administration, commercial investment and IP protection. “IP generation became one of the pillars of the strategy because of its great importance and its contribution to generating IP assets of economic and social value. The management pillar aims to raise the value of intellectual property by establishing a rapid and high-quality registration system for its purpose of ensuring effective management of human creativity. Commercial investment will contribute to growth and improve the attractiveness of the Kingdom for future international investment,” Atalayer reported. 

The announcement about NIPST came not long after the Kingdom’s investment in futuristic cities and projects, including The Line, Oxagon and Sindalah, each of which has a distinctive geographical location and strong digital infrastructure.  

Facing this bright future for intellectual property work in Riyadh and elsewhere in the Kingdom, we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Saudi Arabia’s IP Experts, those lawyers who understand just what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.  

As Saudi Arabia’s leadership faces a public demanding a more liberal society, the Kingdom has become a more attractive destination for lawyers to set up shop. While many expat lawyers in the Kingdom still split their time between Riyadh and some place like Dubai, more lawyers are settling in the KSA and joining those who are locally grown, trained and hired. 

Regional firms including Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property and Al Tamimi & Company are represented alongside international firms such as Eversheds Sutherland and Freshfields, who work in association with local law firms. The other firms represented on our inaugural list of IP Experts for Saudi Arabia are local firms, demonstrating the great strength such firms have in the Kingdom. 

Our survey includes only those lawyers working at law firms in Saudi Arabia. 

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are Asia IP’s IP Experts for Saudi Arabia. – GREGORY GLASS

Saudi Arabia’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Asia and around the world, as well as EMEA-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has more than 45 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in the region. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in Saudi Arabia were eligible for inclusion in the nomination process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 20 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.