Saudi Arabia has reportedly high levels of online piracy, particularly through illicit streaming devices, which are reported to be widely available and generally unregulated in Saudi Arabia. In December 2020, 32.6 percent of the 510,000 worldwide users of livehd7, a popular streaming website that violates IP laws, were from Saudi Arabia. It was also reported that the Saudi Arabia government continues to use unlicensed and “under-licensed” (in which an insufficient number of licenses is procured for the total number of users) software on government computer systems in violation of their copyrights.

Saudi Arabia has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Saudi Arabia is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Saudi Arabia has a copyright regime under the Royal Decree No. M/11 on Copyright Law. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Art. 15 lists the exceptions, which include copying the work for personal use; quoting passages from the work in another work; using the work by way of clarification for educational purposes; among others.

Art. 14 of the Patent Law requires foreign applicants to appoint a representative or a registered Saudi patent attorney for the patent process in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it was reported that the Saudi patent office, dispute committee, and courts only accept Arabic documents or their Arabic translation by a certified translator. This includes priority documents, power of attorney, and translation of certificates in other jurisdictions used as evidence.

While Saudi Arabia maintains robust patent enforcement laws, clear sanctions and multiple remedial actions, it is reported that enforcement is hampered by the lack of clear legal definitions - especially regarding online protections.

The Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) offers detailed information on the investment process, provides licenses and support services to foreign investors, and coordinates with government ministries to facilitate investment. According to MISA, it must grant or refuse a license within five days of receiving an application and supporting documentation from a prospective investor. Depending on the type of license issued, foreign firms may also require the approval of relevant competent authorities, such as the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Tourism.
MISA has established and posted online its licensing guidelines, but it is reported that many companies looking to invest in Saudi Arabia continue to work with local representation to navigate the bureaucratic licensing process.
The Implementing Regulations of the Foreign Investment Article 11 further states that the rejection of the investment license application, amendment, or renewal by the relevant authority shall be reasoned, and the person concerned may file an objection to the rejection within sixty days from the date of his notification of the decision.

Art. 3 of the Implementing Regulations of the Foreign Investment introduces a negative list approach of foreign investment in Saudi Arabia. The list does not include the limitation of foreign ownership in sectors relevant to digital trade in 2021. Nevertheless, it is reported that certain restrictions attached to obtaining full ownership have proven difficult to meet and precluded many investors from taking full advantage of the reform. These include a requirement to invest over USD 50 million during the first five years and to ensure that 30% of all products sold are manufactured locally. Moreover, although Saudi Arabia has undertaken a limited privatization process for state-owned companies and assets since 2002, it is reported that the process, which is open to domestic and foreign investors, has resulted only in partial privatization of SOEs in the telecommunication sector.

The Regulatory Arrangements for the Local Content and Government Procurement Law mandates the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) to set local content requirements for individual contracts, track the amount of local content used by contractors, and obtain and audit commitments by contractors to increase their reliance on local content in the public procurement. The Law defines local content as “total spending in Saudi Arabia from the participation of Saudi elements in the workforce, goods, services, assets, technology, etc.” The Law requires the bidder in public procurement to include a list of items provided locally in their proposal, and this list of items will vary for each bidding. The bidder should meet a minimum baseline of local content provided by LCGPA in order to participate. LCGPA also manages an online portal through which contractors register their commitments to increase local content. Contractors who fall short of their commitments will be fined and could be blacklisted from procurement for repeated failures to honor commitments over the long term.

Saudi Arabia is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2007.

The Council of Ministers’ Resolution 124 stipulates that foreign contractors awarded government projects must subcontract at least 30% of the value of the contract to wholly owned Saudi subcontractors unless they can show that no Saudi contractor can provide the required goods or services. Foreign companies with a majority Saudi shareholding are exempt from this requirement.

The Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC), the telecommunications regulator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, issued a revised version of its Cloud Computing Regulatory Framework (CCRF v3), which came into effect on 18/04/1442 H (corresponding to 3 December 2020) and replaces version 2 of the Cloud Computing Regulatory Framework (CCRF v2). This version clarifies the restrictions regarding transfers of government generated customer content outside Saudi Arabia.
Art. 3.3.8 of the CCRF v3 states that cloud computing service providers (CSP) and cloud computing subscribers shall not transfer any Saudi Government data outside the Kingdom, for whatever purpose and in whatever format, whether permanently or temporarily (e.g. for caching, redundancy or similar purposes), unless this is expressly allowed under the laws or regulations of the Kingdom. Art 3.3.9 also adds that cloud computing subscribers may not transfer, store, or process shared content from Saudi government agencies' data to any public cloud computing system, community cloud computing system or hybrid cloud computing system belonging to a service provider within the Kingdom, unless the CSP is properly registered with CITC.

The Regulation on Preference for Local Content, Local SMEs, and Publicly Listed Companies establishes price preferences for Saudi SMEs and publicly listed companies in government tenders. Local SMEs in which Saudi nationals own greater than a 50% stake receive a 10% price advantage on bidding, while publicly listed companies receive a 5% price advantage.
In addition, the Government Tenders and Procurement Law states priority should be given to local SMEs if the value of the government purchases is not more than 500,000 riyals (approx. 130.000 USD) (Art. 30). The regulation further states that the bidding process is not required for government contracts with SMEs.

Art. 11.9 of the Regulations for Importation and Licensing of Telecommunications and Information Technology Equipment provides a general requirement to disclose details of encryption systems contained in ICT equipment being imported, including equipment imported for government public procurement.

Art. 35 of the Government Tenders and Procurement Law sets out a range of measures regarding knowledge transfer. The regulation stipulates that contracts in government tenders impose knowledge transfer requirements which would include practical as well as theoretical skill transfer. The regulation does not define further what type of knowledge transfer is required.