The first meeting of the National Committee for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights was held under the chairmanship of Dr. Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al-Suwailem, the CEO of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, with the presence and membership of representatives of each of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Media, the Public Prosecution ,Public Security, Saudi Customs, the General Authority for Food and Drug, the General Commission for Audiovisual Media ,Communications and Information Technology Commission and the Council of Saudi Chambers, in addition to a specialized member of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property.

During the meeting, the scope of the enforcement of intellectual property rights and the objectives of the committee were discussed; in addition to the most important topics and tasks that will contribute to achieving those objectives. Moreover, the committee proposed national programs and initiatives to ensure the respect of IP rights, followed by the procedures of the enforcement system bodies and proposing their development, in addition to coordinating efforts and strategies as well as proposing regulatory materials to improve the work of the enforcement system to achieve harmony between governmental and private agencies to enforce and advance intellectual property rights.

It is worth noting that SAIP has previously launched the IP Respect Officer initiative, through which it seeks to raise compliance to IP laws and regulations among the government entities through qualifying and training an official from each government agency through several training programs under the supervision of the SAIP’s Academy in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization until qualification is completed to issue the certification for IP Respect Officers.