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Last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Saudi Arabia’s National Intellectual Property Strategy, which is one of the enablers for achieving the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 development and diversification agenda.

The main pillars of the strategy cover several sectors and development areas. It aims to build an intellectual property system that encourages and supports innovation and creativity, and maximizes the benefits these bring to the economy, by establishing an intellectual property value chain that stimulates competitive innovation and creativity, and supports economic growth. Such growth will enable the Kingdom to become a pioneer in the field of intellectual property rights.

During the launch, the crown prince shared his hope that the strategy, which was approved by the Saudi Cabinet, will stimulate creativity and innovation in the Kingdom over the next five years.

The National Intellectual Property Strategy is based on four basic pillars: generation, management, commercial investment, and protection. The implementation of these pillars aim to enhance the Kingdom’s ability to develop intellectual property assets of economic and social value.

Based on the importance of intellectual property, the creative minds of young innovators in various fields, and other competitive advantages, there is official recognition that a clear mechanism for encouraging, attracting, managing and developing creativity is required to promote the development of intellectual property.

With support for the generation and management of talent in place, protection is considered one of the most important pillars of the strategy. It aims to revitalize the market economy by providing a framework that provides protection for intellectual property, promotes respect for intellectual property rights, and enhances the value of safeguards on creative rights. Of course, laws and regulations will be put in place to help achieve this, with fines and other penalties imposed on those who break them.

The commercial investment pillar is designed to contribute to growth and investment in the Kingdom, building on the nation’s own investment in its smart city megaprojects, such as The Line and NEOM, and other plans with innovation and creativity at their core, as well as its strategically important geographical location and strong digital infrastructure.

This pillar aims to enhance competitiveness and enable and facilitate the related products and services required to maximize the results.

Each pillar includes initiatives assigned to government agencies, which will be assessed periodically according to a framework for governance that defines all related roles and responsibilities.

Dimah Talal Al-Sharif is a Saudi legal consultant, head of the health law department at the law firm of Majed Garoub and a member of the International Association of Lawyers. Twitter: @dimah_alsharif