Saudi Arabia defends IP system despite TRIPS breach
Saudi Arabia has defended its IP system in the wake of the publication of a critical World Trade Organisation (WTO) report on the beoutQ piracy TV service earlier this month.
The WTO found that Saudi Arabia had breached the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IP Rights (TRIPS) by not applying criminal sanctions to beoutQ, and said its failure to do so was not justified by national security concerns.
The case was brought by the Qatari government, which has long accused the Saudi government of assisting beoutQ in stealing Qatari broadcaster beIN Media’s sports content.
The WTO panel accepted Saudi Arabia’s national security defence when it came to beIN’s inability to secure legal counsel in the Kingdom. The Saudi government said this was justified by the diplomatic crisis between the two Gulf states.
Saudi Arabia has now repeated its position that it was “vindicated” by the WTO report, but pledged to “continue” its efforts to tackle piracy and IP theft in the Kingdom.
In a statement issued yesterday, June 24, the Saudi Authority for IP (SAIP) said it would continue to launch awareness campaigns to “build respect of IP”, as well as “large scale” crackdowns on pirate broadcasting boxes.
BeoutQ’s focus has moved in the past year from broadcasting live sports broadcasts pirated from beIN to the sale of so-called "beoutQ boxes".
The WTO report found that the Saudi government was responsible for the failure to bring any sanctions against beoutQ or to stop its pirate activities.
Despite the report, Saudi Arabia has continued to defend the integrity of its IP and wider legal systems.
“We continue to hear complaints that access is being blocked to enforcement through the Saudi legal system. Therefore, we want to confirm how simple and transparent our process is for submitting information and claims regarding the protection of IP,” the SAIP statement said.
It also claimed that rights owners need only “send an email to the responsible authorities” in order to highlight an IP violation.
BeIN argued that it was unable to bring a case in Saudi Arabia because no law firm would represent the Qatari company.
The WTO panel said it was “difficult to conceive of any plausible explanation of why beIN and foreign right holders would be unable to obtain any legal representation in Saudi Arabia in relation to beoutQ—an entity engaged in high-profile piracy that has been the subject of global condemnation—if not for some form of government instruction, direction or guidance”.
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