Introduction
Intellectual property (IP) refers to the original creation of a person like artistic, technical and scientific creations. Intellectual property rights (IPR), on the other hand, are the legal rights that are given to inventors in order to protect his or her invention within a given period of time. IPRs ensure that inventors have exclusive rights to use his or her invention within a certain period of time. IP are mainly protected in order to encourage creativity and innovation. Like any other country, Saudi Arabia has ethical and legal issues surrounding the need to protect intellectual property (Brown, 2012). The paper, therefore, discusses ethical and legal issues on IPR in Saudi Arabia.
Ethical Guidelines
Ethics are principles that guide people in what is good and bad. They are mainly based on morals. Therefore, Saudi Arabia came up with ethical guidelines for the protection of intellectual property rights (Brown, 2012). The ethical guidelines include:
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Inventors are required to keep their inventions secret until they have applied for the patent application or IPR. This is a moral requirement because people are likely to claim that they own inventions that are already in public domain. Inventors have moral obligation to ensure that their inventions are confidential until they apply for IP protection (Brown, 2012).
IP should be owned in such a way that it gives room for development or further inventions. Even though people have the opportunity to apply for IP protection, they should give room for its development. It is morally wrong to apply IPR when the invention is not put to its intended use (Brown, 2012).
Investors have the moral obligation of being realistic on what they can or cannot protect. Inventors are not required to apply for IPR in all the small inventions they create, as this may hinder further invention and creativity. Some inventions are best left open to encourage their development to make them more effective (Brown, 2012).
Application of IPR should not be used to prevent people from accessing fundamental information. The application should allow people to benefits from the available information. It should be sensitive to the fact that people have fundamental rights to access and benefit from information (Brown, 2012).
Legal Guideline to Protect Patents and Copyrights
Over the last two decades, Saudi Arabia has tried to develop its IPR to be in line with the international standards, including WTO agreement. It has come up with a number of legal guidelines to protect patents and copyrights. In order for an invention to patented, it must be novel and it should be capable of industrial application. However, an invention is not patentable if it is a mathematical method, scientific theory, scheme of doing mental work, aesthetic creations or a computer program. At the same time, for an inventor to qualify for patent, the invention must have never been made public before the filing of application, it should not be obvious skill in relevant field, and should be capable of being used in an industry. Saudi Arabia Patent laws require people opposing patent application to file their complaints within 90 days after the inventor has applied for IPR. In addition, the patent right can only last for a maximum period of 20 years. A patent that is not fully exploited by the inventor within three years from the time the application is granted is subject to compulsory licensing. Besides, patentees are required to pay annual maintenance fee ( Marshall & Shipman, 2017) .
The Royal Decree number 11/M is aimed at protecting copyrights in Saudi Arabia. In order to be protected, the owner of the copyright is required to present his or her work with the Ministry of Information. Only inventors whose works have been are expressed in form of writing, sound, drawings, pictures, and computer software can enjoy copyright protection. Copyrights in Saudi Arabia are protected for the entire lifetime of the inventor and 50 years after his or her death. However, for the copyright protection to be effective, the work should have special and unique features that have never been presented for registration. In addition, any printed material or computer program can only be distributed in Saudi Arabia after it has been approved by the Ministry of Information ( Marshall & Shipman, 2017) .
Protecting the Distribution of Computer Software
Saudi Arabia protects the misuse and distribution of computer software. Copyrighted software in Saudi Arabia is protects for a period of 50 years from the time an inventor apply for the IPR ( Britton, 2016) . At the same time, people are only allowed to distribute computer software after they have sought approval from the Ministry of Culture and information. Any person who is found distributing computer software without the approval of the ministry is subjected to heavy fines and sometimes jailed for the violation of the IPR.
In order to enhance the protection of computer software inventors, Saudi Arabia government does not allow any government agency or public official to use pirated computer software. Any supplier distributing computer software is prosecuted for the violation of the intellectual property laws (Brown et al., 2012). In addition, Saudi Arabia passed the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) to outlaw piracy and distribution of pirated computer software. UCL is aimed at distribution and use of stolen computer software that can give some firm unfair competitive advantage in the market. Therefore, Saudi Arabia protects the distribution of computer software to encourage creativity and innovation in the country (Brown et al., 2012).
Protecting the Use and Distribution of Digital Entertainment
The use of pirated digital entertainment materials was common in Saudi Arabia until the country came up with the Unfair Competition Law that banned any form of piracy. Both individuals and organizations are not allowed to use pirated digital entertainment. Saudi Arabia does not allow the use of pirated digital entertainment by public entities. At the same time, the distribution of digital entertainment materials can only be authorized by the Ministry of Culture and Information. Therefore, Saudi Arabia has established effective mechanisms of protecting the use and distribution of digital materials (Brown et al., 2012).
Conclusion
Protecting intellectual property is not only beneficial to individual inventors but also the economy and society at large. Business can use IPR to gain competitive advantage in the market in terms of producing quality products and services. The government can also use IPR to encourage creativity and innovation among its citizens, which can lead to economic growth and development. Therefore, Saudi Arabia should ensure that it come up with relevant and necessary laws that can enhance the protection of intellectual property. It is important for inventors to feel that there are adequate laws and policies that can protect their inventions. Hence, Saudi Arabia needs to do more to protect all intellectual properties.
References
Britton, K. (2016). Handling privacy and security in the Internet of things. Journal of Internet Law , 19 (10), 3-7.
Brown, C. et al., (2012). Managing Information Technology (7 th ed.). Library of Congress Cataloging.
Marshall, C. C., & Shipman, F. M. (2017). Who owns the social web?. Communications of the ACM , 60 (5), 52-61.
