Registering a trademark with SAIP: the process, the deadlines and the decisions to make

A Saudi trademark registration is administered by the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property under the GCC Trademark Law, enacted in the Kingdom by Royal Decree M/51 dated 26/7/1435H and amended by Royal Decree M/49 dated 1/6/1442H. The Law and its Executive Regulations set the grounds of refusal, the publication and opposition periods, the grievance routes and the term of protection. SAIP publishes the fees, the procedural steps and the platform.

Most of what determines the outcome, however, is decided before the application is filed.

This guide reflects SAIP and WIPO materials available on 13 August 2026. It is general information and does not resolve the registrability of any particular mark.

Registration steps at a glance

Prepare for registration in this order:

1. Identify the applicant — which entity in the group will own the mark, and how it will license the mark to the operating business.
2. Search before committing to the brand, not after the launch materials are printed.
3. Decide class scope against the commercial plan, not against a template.
4. File, monitor the examination outcome and record any resulting deadlines.
5. Track publication and the opposition period.
6. Pay the final invoice inside the published window.
7. Diarise renewal in the final year of the term.

Fees and published timing

SAIP publishes three separate amounts on its Trademark Registration service page: SAR 1,000 for the application, SAR 500 for publication, and SAR 5,000 for registration and issuance of the certificate. These are separate government charges, not a statement of the total cost of registration. Check the applicable charges and requirements with SAIP when filing.

SAIP states a service completion period of 90 days. Three further periods appear in its published steps: where a mark is accepted subject to amendment, the applicant has 90 days to comply; publication runs for 60 days; and the final invoice must be paid within 30 days before the certificate is printed.

These are the published figures. SAIP does not publish a single timetable from application to certificate. Examination objections, oppositions and grievances can affect the actual duration, so a single duration should not be promised for every mark.

Applications filed from 19 December 2023 are handled through SAIP’s e-services platform; earlier registrations remain on the previous system.

Before filing: clearance

SAIP operates a free trademark search over its national registration databases, returning results immediately.

Article 3 of the GCC Trademark Law lists fifteen categories of signs that may not be registered. They include marks with no distinctive character; marks that may mislead the public as to origin or source; geographical names whose use would create confusion as to origin; a third party’s name, title, picture or logo used without consent; marks similar to a trademark previously lodged or registered by others; and the reproduction, imitation or translation of a renowned mark. SAIP’s own guidance manual sets out the refusal grounds together with a four-tier distinctiveness analysis, from descriptive through suggestive and arbitrary to invented terms.

The Law does not organise Article 3 into “absolute” and “relative” grounds. That division is a useful analytical habit imported from other systems, not a feature of the instrument, and it should not be presented as though the Law adopted it.

Two practical points sit alongside the legal test, and they are practical inferences rather than published rules. First, SAIP’s search service is described as covering registered trademarks; a search of the register is not by itself a complete picture of what has been filed and is awaiting examination, and the IP Gazette — which carries details of applications submitted from 19 December 2023 — is a separate source worth reading. Second, no official Saudi source we could locate addresses the language or script of a mark, transliteration between Arabic and Latin characters, or Arabic representation. Where a brand will be used in both scripts, the commercial exposure in each is a matter of judgment, and it should be treated as judgment rather than as a rule with a citation behind it.

Classes

The Law permits registration for one or more categories of goods or services subject to the Executive Regulations. That provision alone does not establish whether classes can be combined in one application. Specify the goods, services, classes and number of applications according to SAIP’s current filing requirements.

Use the Nice Classification edition and classification requirements accepted by SAIP at filing. Specify goods and services against the business the mark will actually support. An over-broad specification invites objection and opposition. A narrow one leaves the brand exposed in exactly the direction the business intends to grow.

Examination, publication and opposition

SAIP examines the application and issues a decision: acceptance, acceptance subject to amendment within 90 days, or refusal.

An accepted mark is announced through the means of publication. Under Article 14, any concerned person may object to the registration within sixty days of publication. SAIP notifies the applicant with a copy of the objection within thirty days, and the applicant has sixty days from notification to submit a written response.

Under Article 15, the competent authority then issues its decision accepting or rejecting registration. An interested person may complain to the competent authority within thirty days and may challenge the decision before the competent court within thirty days. An objection to an acceptance decision does not suspend the registration procedure unless the court decides otherwise.

If the application is refused

Article 13 gives a refused applicant sixty days from notification to lodge a grievance before a committee determined in the Executive Regulations, and a further sixty days to challenge that committee’s decision before the competent court. An applicant who lets both periods pass is deemed to have waived the application.

SAIP operates a dedicated committee for trademark grievances. The Law refers to challenges before “the competent court” and does not itself name the judicial forum; the applicable court should be confirmed for the specific matter rather than assumed.

Term and renewal

Protection runs for ten years and continues for successive ten-year periods where renewal is applied for within the final year of the current term. An owner who misses that window has a further six months after expiry to renew. Failing that, the mark is struck off the register. Renewal is effected without further examination and is announced by publication.

Record renewal deadlines in the system the company uses to track its legal obligations, and assign responsibility for monitoring them rather than relying on an individual’s memory.

What changes on 8 October 2026

Saudi Arabia deposited its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol on 8 July 2026. WIPO records that the Protocol enters into force for Saudi Arabia on 8 October 2026.

Until that date the Kingdom cannot be designated in an international application, and national filing with SAIP is the route.

Three declarations lodged by Saudi Arabia will shape how the international route works in practice. The period for notifying a provisional refusal is extended from twelve to eighteen months. Saudi Arabia will receive an individual fee when designated; WIPO has stated that the amounts will follow in a separate notice. The Saudi Office will not present to WIPO’s International Bureau requests for the division of an international registration in respect of Saudi Arabia, or requests for the merger of international registrations resulting from division, on the stated basis that Saudi law does not provide for either procedure.

That last point deserves attention from anyone planning a portfolio. Division is a common tactic for salvaging the unopposed part of an application when opposition is directed at particular goods. Where it is unavailable, the class strategy set at filing carries more weight, because there is less room to restructure later.

The decision before filing

Before an application is submitted, four questions should have settled answers: which entity owns the mark and on what licensing basis; what the clearance position is across the registers and the gazette; which classes the commercial plan actually requires; and who holds the diary for the examination, publication, payment and renewal deadlines.

Temairik Law’s intellectual property practice advises on Saudi trademark clearance, ownership structuring, filing strategy, opposition and enforcement.

This article is general information and is not legal advice. Registrability, class scope and procedural options depend on the mark, the goods and services, the applicant and the official materials in force at the time.