On 20 October 2026, the Saudi Council of Ministers approved four new laws in the field of intellectual property: the Patents and Utility Models Law, the Designs Law, the Plant Varieties Law, and the Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits Law.

This step aims to achieve a complete legislative separation between the four intellectual property fields, which were previously merged under a single unified law issued in 2004 (the Law of Patents, Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs).

The full and detailed texts of the laws are expected to be published in the Official Gazette within the coming weeks, and we will share further updates once the legislation is available for review.