King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) announced that the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property became effective, with respect to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), on March 11, 2004. Accordingly, the City started rejecting any application claiming priority exceeding 12 months as from the aforesaid date.
The Paris Convention is one of the key IP conventions administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Kingdom has already joined the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization on 1982.
Article (4) of the Convention stipulates that any person, who has duly filed an application for a patent in one of the countries of the Paris Union, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in other countries, a right of priority within 12 months of filing the application in the home country.
The Paris Convention provides for the protection of patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, trade names, indications of source or appellations of origin, and the repression of unfair competition in all its 166-member country.
The Paris Convention consists of 30 articles dealing with four main sections covering: National Treatment for Nationals of Countries of the Union, Right of Priority, Provisions Governing all Industrial Property Rights, and the Administrative Framework for the Enforcement of the Convention.