DOCSLIB.ORG

Saudi Arabia – Measures Concerning the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Saudi Arabia – Measures Concerning the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights WT/DS567/R 16 June 2020 (20-4200) Page: 1/125 Original: English SAUDI ARABIA – MEASURES CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS REPORT OF THE PANEL WT/DS567/R - 2 - TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 14 1.1 Complaint by Qatar .....................................................................................................14 1.2 Panel establishment and composition ............................................................................14 1.3 Panel proceeding ........................................................................................................14 1.3.1 General ..................................................................................................................14 1.3.2 Procedural issues arising from Saudi Arabia's refusal to interact with Qatar .....................15 1.3.3 Issues concerning certain English translations submitted by the UAE ..............................16 1.3.4 The Panel's request for information from the International Bureau of WIPO .....................16 1.3.5 Saudi Arabia's request to confirm the authenticity of an exhibit submitted by Qatar .........17 1.3.6 Procedural issues arising from Qatar's submission of a witness statement .......................17 2 FACTUAL ASPECTS..................................................................................................... 21 2.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................21 2.2 Factual background.....................................................................................................21 2.2.1 The broadcasting and copyright regime in Saudi Arabia ................................................21 2.2.2 The June 2017 severance of relations and events leading up to it ..................................25 2.2.3 The broadcasting operations of the Qatari-based beIN Media Group ...............................29 2.2.4 The emergence of beoutQ .........................................................................................31 2.3 The measures at issue ................................................................................................32 3 PARTIES' REQUESTS FOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................ 33 4 ARGUMENTS OF THE PARTIES ................................................................................... 35 5 ARGUMENTS OF THE THIRD PARTIES ........................................................................ 35 6 INTERIM REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 35 6.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................35 6.2 General issues ...........................................................................................................35 6.3 Factual aspects ..........................................................................................................39 6.4 Preliminary considerations ...........................................................................................40 6.5 Acts and omissions claimed by Qatar to be attributable to Saudi Arabia.............................40 6.6 Claims under Parts I, II and III of the TRIPS Agreement..................................................45 6.7 Saudi Arabia's invocation of Article 73(b)(iii) of the TRIPS Agreement ...............................46 6.8 Conclusions and recommendation .................................................................................47 7 FINDINGS ................................................................................................................. 47 7.1 Preliminary considerations ...........................................................................................47 7.1.1 Overview and order of analysis ..................................................................................47 7.1.2 Saudi Arabia's request that the Panel decline to make any findings or recommendation based on Articles 3.4, 3.7 and 11 of the DSU ................................................49 7.1.3 The measures challenged by Qatar ............................................................................54 7.2 Acts and omissions claimed by Qatar to be attributable to Saudi Arabia.............................57 7.2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................57 7.2.2 Arguments ..............................................................................................................59 WT/DS567/R - 3 - 7.2.2.1 Qatar ..................................................................................................................59 7.2.2.2 Saudi Arabia .........................................................................................................60 7.2.3 Assessment by the Panel ..........................................................................................62 7.2.3.1 Applicable legal standard .......................................................................................62 7.2.3.2 beIN's access to civil enforcement procedures ..........................................................63 7.2.3.2.1 Anti-sympathy measures.....................................................................................63 7.2.3.2.1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................63 7.2.3.2.1.2 Evidence regarding general anti-sympathy measures ...........................................63 7.2.3.2.1.3 Evidence regarding the refusal of Saudi law firms to act in relation to the beoutQ matter ...................................................................................................................65 7.2.3.2.1.4 Evidence regarding other actions by Saudi authorities to direct private entities in their arrangements with beIN ..........................................................................................66 7.2.3.2.1.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................68 7.2.3.2.2 The 19 June 2017 Circular, travel restrictions and Ministerial approval requirement ......................................................................................................................68 7.2.3.3 Non-application of criminal procedures and penalties .................................................73 7.2.3.3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................73 7.2.3.3.2 Overview of correspondence ................................................................................73 7.2.3.3.3 Evidence regarding the promotion of beoutQ by prominent Saudi nationals ...............77 7.2.3.3.4 Evidence regarding the targeting of the Saudi market by beoutQ .............................79 7.2.3.3.5 Evidence regarding the transmission of beoutQ's broadcasts via Arabsat ...................83 7.2.3.3.6 Evidence regarding the involvement of Selevision ..................................................88 7.2.3.3.7 Overall assessment ............................................................................................90 7.2.3.4 Public screenings of beoutQ's broadcasts .................................................................90 7.2.4 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................92 7.3 Claims under Parts I, II and III of the TRIPS Agreement..................................................92 7.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................92 7.3.2 Arguments ..............................................................................................................93 7.3.2.1 Qatar ..................................................................................................................93 7.3.2.2 Saudi Arabia .........................................................................................................95 7.3.2.3 Third parties .........................................................................................................95 7.3.3 Assessment by the Panel ..........................................................................................97 7.3.3.1 Order of analysis ...................................................................................................97 7.3.3.2 Claims under Article 42 of the TRIPS Agreement regarding civil and administrative procedures and remedies, and Article 41.1 on general obligations ............................................98 7.3.3.2.1 Applicable legal standard.....................................................................................98 7.3.3.2.2 Application to the facts .......................................................................................99 7.3.3.2.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 101 7.3.3.3 Claim under Article 61 of the TRIPS Agreement regarding criminal procedures ........... 101 7.3.3.3.1 Applicable legal standard................................................................................... 101 7.3.3.3.2 Application to the facts ....................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Three Approaches to Fixing the World Trade Organization's Appellate
    Institute of International Economic Law Georgetown University Law Center 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20001 [email protected]; http://iielaw.org/ THREE APPROACHES TO FIXING THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION’S APPELLATE BODY: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY? By Jennifer Hillman, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center* The basic rule book for international trade consists of the legal texts agreed to by the countries that set up the World Trade Organization (WTO) along with specific provisions of its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). At the heart of that rules-based system has been a dispute settlement process by which countries resolve any disputes they have about whether another country has violated those rules or otherwise negated the benefit of the bargain between countries. Now the very existence of that dispute settlement system is threatened by a decision of the Trump Administration to block the appointment of any new members to the dispute settlement system’s highest court, its Appellate Body. Under the WTO rules, the Appellate Body is supposed to be comprised of seven people who serve a four-year term and who may be reappointed once to a second four-year term.1 However, the Appellate Body is now * Jennifer Hillman is a Professor from Practice at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of its Institute of International Economic Law. She is a former member of the WTO Appellate Body and a former Ambassador and General Counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). She would like to thank her research assistant, Archana Subramanian, along with Yuxuan Chen and Ricardo Melendez- Ortiz from the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) for their invaluable assistance with this article.
    [Show full text]
  • Arabs at the Crossroads: Political Identity and Nationalism
    Book Review of Hilal Khashan's Arabs at the Crossroads: Political Identity and Nationalism (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 3(2):141-147, 2000. In the book Arabs at the Crossroads, Hilal Khashan, an associate professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, provides a vivid description of Arab political performance since the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century and the subsequent formal abrogation of the Islamic Caliphate in 1924 amidst rising European colonialism and Zionism. The book is small (149 pages of text) but concise and well written. Despite raising some very controversial issues, Khashan has combined the coolness of scholarship with intellectual rigor and political concern. His dispassionate perspective is refreshing and makes the book unapologetically independent and provocative. The book consists of nine chapters mostly focused on Arab political experience during the twentieth century. Chapter 1 examines the roots of the identity crisis in the Arab world, especially the ways in which “nineteenth-century reformers disturbed the Arab mind by sowing distrust in the Ottoman empire, without securing a tenable ideological alternative to that religious state and to Islam which it embodied” (page 1). Chapter 2 discusses the birth and the universalization of the European nation-state model of secular nationalism and its many incomplete versions in non-Western cultures, particularly in Muslim countries where “the clash between ethnocentrism and religion seems to resolve itself to the detriment of the former, without the latter emerging as a clear victor” (page 24). While this is a brilliant description of how modern Arab identity seems to swing constantly from Arab nationalism to Islamic identity and back, it stops short of an in-depth theoretical analysis of what constitutes the essence of identity in the Arab world.
    [Show full text]
  • Canada-Renewable Energy: Implications for WTO Law on Green
    October 2014 RFF DP 14-38 PER Canada–Renewable Energy: Implications for WTO Law on Green and Not-So- Green Subsidies Steve Charnovitz and Carolyn Fischer 1616 P St. NW Washington, DC 20036 202-328-5000 www.rff.org DISCUSSION PA Canada–Renewable Energy: Implications for WTO Law on Green and Not-So-Green Subsidies Steve Charnovitz and Carolyn Fischer Abstract In the first dispute on renewable energy to come to World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement, the domestic content requirement of Ontario’s feed-in tariff was challenged as a discriminatory investment-related measure and as a prohibited import substitution subsidy. The panel and Appellate Body agreed that Canada was violating the GATT and the TRIMS Agreement. But the SCM Article 3 claim by Japan and the European Union remains unadjudicated, because neither tribunal made a finding that the price guaranteed for electricity from renewable sources constitutes a ‘benefit’ pursuant to the SCM Agreement. Although the Appellate Body provides useful guidance to future panels on how the existence of a benefit could be calculated, the most noteworthy aspect of the new jurisprudence is the Appellate Body’s reasoning that delineating the proper market for ‘benefit’ analysis entails respect for the policy choices made by a government. Thus, in this dispute, the proper market is electricity produced only from wind and solar energy. Key Words: feed-in tariff, renewable energy, subsidies, international trade, WTO, green growth, local content requirement JEL Codes: K33, Q48, Q56, Q58 © 2014 Resources for the Future. All rights reserved. No portion of this paper may be reproduced without permission of the authors.
    [Show full text]
  • Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement
    Status of WTO Legal Instruments – 2021 edition Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement Done at Geneva on 6 December 2005 Entry into force: 23 January 2017259 Text: WTO Treaty Series No. 34, WT/Let/508, WT/L/641 UN Registration: 25 April 2018, A-31874, No. 68488 UNTS: not yet determined Relevant clauses … 1. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the "TRIPS Agreement") shall, upon the entry into force of the Protocol pursuant to paragraph 4, be amended as set out in the Annex to this Protocol, by inserting Article 31bis after Article 31 and by inserting the Annex to the TRIPS Agreement after Article 73. 2. Reservations may not be entered in respect of any of the provisions of this Protocol without the consent of the other Members. 3. This Protocol shall be open for acceptance by Members until 1 December 2007 or such later date as may be decided by the Ministerial Conference.260 4. This Protocol shall enter into force in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article X of the WTO Agreement. 5. This Protocol shall be deposited with the Director-General of the World Trade Organization who shall promptly furnish to each Member a certified copy thereof and a notification of each acceptance thereof pursuant to paragraph 3. … _______________ 259 See WT/Let/1236. 260 The General Council extended the deadline to 31 December 2009, to 31 December 2011, to 31 December 2013, to 31 December 2015, to 31 December 2017, 31 December 2019, and then to 31 December 2021 (or such later date as may be decided by the Ministerial Conference) by decisions adopted on 18 December 2007 (WT/L/711), 17 December 2009 (WT/L/785), 30 November 2011 (WT/L/829), 26 November 2013 (WT/L/899), 30 November 2015 (WT/L/965), 30 November 2017 (WT/L/1024), and 10 December 2019 (WT/L/1081).
    [Show full text]
  • Saudi Arabia 2019
    Saudi Arabia 2019 Saudi Arabia 2019 1 Table of Contents Doing Business in Saudi Arabia ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Market Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Market Challenges ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Market Opportunities ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Market Entry Strategy ............................................................................................................................................... 9 Political Environment................................................................................................................................................... 10 Selling US Products & Services .................................................................................................................................... 11 Agents and Distributors ........................................................................................................................................... 11 Establishing an Office .............................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • TRIPS and Pharmaceutical Patents
    FACT SHEET September 2003 TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents CONTENTS Philosophy: TRIPS attempts to strike a balance 1 What is the basic patent right? 2 A patent is not a permit to put a product on the market 2 Under TRIPS, what are member governments’ obligations on pharmaceutical patents? 2 IN GENERAL (see also “exceptions”) 2 Exceptions 3 ELIGIBILITY FOR PATENTING 3 RESEARCH EXCEPTION AND “BOLAR” PROVISION 3 ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICE, ETC 4 COMPULSORY LICENSING 4 WHAT ARE THE GROUNDS FOR USING COMPULSORY LICENSING? 5 PARALLEL IMPORTS, GREY IMPORTS AND ‘EXHAUSTION’ OF RIGHTS 5 THE DOHA DECLARATION ON TRIPS AND PUBLIC HEALTH 5 IMPORTING UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSING (‘PAR.6’) 6 What does ‘generic’ mean? 6 Developing countries’ transition periods 7 GENERAL 7 PHARMACEUTICALS AND AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS 7 For more information 8 The TRIPS Agreement Philosophy: TRIPS attempts to strike a balance Article 7 Objectives The WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of The protection and enforcement of intellectual property Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) attempts to strike rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and a balance between the long term social objective of dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage providing incentives for future inventions and of producers and users of technological knowledge and creation, and the short term objective of allowing in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations. people to use existing inventions and creations. The agreement covers a wide range of subjects, from Article 8 copyright and trademarks, to integrated circuit Principles designs and trade secrets.
    [Show full text]
  • Qatar Wins Legal Battle Over Air Blockade
    www.thepeninsula.qa Wednesday 15 July 2020 Volume 25 | Number 8319 24 Dhul-Qa'da - 1441 2 Riyals BUSINESS | 14 PENMAG | 15 SPORT | 20 Profits hit as US Classifieds AFC shortlists banks set aside and Services Qatar coach billions for section Sanchez for top bad loans included award Do it online now. Get a new SIM from the Online safety of your home! Qatar wins legal battle over air blockade THE PENINSULA & AGENCIES Qatar emerged victorious at top UN court as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled In the dispute under the Chicago yesterday that the country has the right to challenge airspace Convention, the ICJ ruled that: restrictions imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt before the UN’s aviation body With respect to the blockading states’ first ground of appeal, which — the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). alleged that the ICAO Council “failed to uphold fundamental principles Since June 2017, the block- of due process,” the ICJ unanimously found that “the procedures ading countries (Saudi Arabia, followed by the Council did not prejudice in any fundamental way the the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt) have pro- requirements of a just procedure.” hibited Qatar-registered aircraft from flying to or from their air- The ICJ also rejected the blockading states’ second ground of appeal, ports and overflying their We welcome the decision by the ICJ that which claimed that the “real issue” in dispute was not their violations national airspaces, in flagrant will see the blockading countries finally of the Chicago Convention and IASTA, but their blatantly false violation of international law.
    [Show full text]
  • A Handbook on the Wto Trips Agreement
    A HANDBOOK ON THE WTO TRIPS AGREEMENT This handbook describes the historical and legal background to the TRIPS Agreement, its role in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its institutional framework, and reviews the following areas: general provisions and basic principles; copyright and related rights; trademarks; geographical indications; patents; industrial designs, layout-designs, undisclosed information and anti-competitive practices; enforcement of intellectual property rights; dispute settlement in the context of the TRIPS Agreement; TRIPS and public health; and current TRIPS issues. It contains a guide to TRIPS notifications by WTO Members and describes how to access and make use of the official documentation relating to the TRIPS Agreement and connected issues. Furthermore, it includes the legal texts of the TRIPS Agreement and the relevant provi- sions of the WIPO conventions referred to in it, as well as subsequent relevant WTO instruments. antony taubman is Director of the Intellectual Property Division of the WTO Secretariat. hannu wager is a senior officer in the Intellectual Property Division of the WTO Secretariat. jayashree watal is a senior officer in the Intellectual Property Division of the WTO Secretariat. AHANDBOOKONTHEWTO TRIPS AGREEMENT Edited by ANTONY TAUBMAN, HANNU WAGER and JAYASHREE WATAL cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sa˜o Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107023161 # World Trade Organization 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
    [Show full text]
  • Totally Blank Broadsheet
    A8 • Adirondack Daily Enterprise • adirondackdailyenterprise.com • Wednesday, June 17, 2020 Want to see your sports news and photos in the Enterprise? Contact the sports department at 891-2600 ext. 26 Sports or [email protected] 19 students earn black belts as local school closes By LOU REUTER Senior Sports Writer SARANAC LAKE — Grand Master Jon O’Kelly’s final day of being a Taekwondo instructor was one of his most memorable ones. After a 35-year career of teaching the martial art, O’Kelly has retired. A Saranac Lake resident, O’Kelly opened the Northeast Taekwondo school in this village in Sept. 2016. On Saturday, he performed his final duty as the head of the school, pro - moting 19 local students to black belts during an outdoor ceremony held on the North Country Commu - nity College soccer field. O’Kelly said all 19 who were promoted were original students of the Saranac Lake-based school when it opened nearly four years ago, and the youngest new black belt earner was 9-year-old Cole Davide. The ceremony was held on a chilly, damp day with plenty of space between the students, who all wore matching black facemasks that included an image of a martial artist. The day began with testing and ended with the handing out of black belts and certificates. O’Kelly said Easton Crary is presented his black belt by Northeast Taek - he was especially impressed with wondo school instructor Grand Master Jon O’Kelly. the display by his students because the school has been shut down for itself.” he said.
    [Show full text]
  • 25 YEARS of the TRIPS AGREEMENT* 24 November 2020 PROGRAMME
    Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM 25 YEARS OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT* 24 November 2020 PROGRAMME 10:00 – 10:10 Opening remarks Mr. Xiaozhun Yi, Deputy-Director General, WTO 10:10 – 11:00 Reflections of TRIPS Council Chairs Mr. Stuart Harbinson, former Permanent Representative of Hong Kong, China, Chair of the Council for TRIPS 1995-1996 H.E. Amb. Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter, South Africa, Chair of the Council for TRIPS 2020-2021 Theme I: The impact of TRIPS on the global IP system 11.00 – 11.20 TRIPS and the global IP system Mr. Antony Taubman, Director, Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division (IPD), WTO 11.20 – 13:00 The TRIPS Council – tracking the legal and institutional development of IP systems over 25 years Moderator: Mr. Wolf Meier-Ewert, Counsellor, IPD, WTO Speakers: TRIPS transparency provisions - Lessons from eTRIPS Ms. Natalie Carlson, Legal Analyst, IPD, WTO TRIPS implementation as a guide for public policy – IP issues in Trade Policy Reviews Ms. Josefita Pardo de Leon, Legal Affairs Officer, IPD, WTO TRIPS and Technology Transfer - Lessons from the implementation of Article 66.2 in the past 25 years Ms. Xiaoping Wu, Counsellor, IPD, WTO TRIPS Capacity Building – Article 67 providing a global landscape of technical assistance Ms. Maegan McCann, Legal Affairs and Technical Assistance Officer, IPD, WTO Evolution of the TRIPS Agreement – Doha, the Public Health dimension, and subsequent cooperation Mr. Roger Kampf, Counsellor, IPD, WTO 25 years of policy insights from TRIPS-related WTO disputes Mr. Hannu Wager, Counsellor, IPD, WTO TRIPS as a benchmark for subsequent norm-setting in international and bilateral treaties Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Vital Role of the WTO Appellate Body in the Promotion of Rule of Law and International Cooperation: a Case Study
    American University Washington College of Law Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals Scholarship & Research 2019 The Vital Role of the WTO Appellate Body in the Promotion of Rule of Law and International Cooperation: A Case Study Padideh Ala'i Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_lawrev Part of the International Trade Law Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons The Yale Journal of International Law Online The Vital Role of the WTO Appellate Body in the Promotion of Rule of Law and International Cooperation: A Case Study By Padideh Ala’i† President Trump’s 2018 Trade Policy Agenda (“2018 Trade Agenda”) proclaims that “[t]he United States will not allow the WTO—or any other multilateral organization—to prevent us from taking actions that are essential to the economic well-being of the American people.”1 As part of this agenda, the United States has targeted the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in particular.2 The United States claims that the Appellate Body has disregarded the rules as set by WTO Members and has adopted a “non-text based interpretation”3 of WTO provisions through an “activist approach.”4 The 2018 Trade Agenda concludes, “[t]he United States has grown increasingly concerned with the activist approach of the Appellate Body on procedural issues, interpretative approach, and substantive interpretations.”5 The United States’ position is based on Article IX.2 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (“Marrakesh Agreement”) and Article 3.2 of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (“DSU”).
    [Show full text]
  • WTO ANALYTICAL INDEX TRIPS Agreement – Article 23 (Practice)
    WTO ANALYTICAL INDEX TRIPS Agreement – Article 23 (Practice) 1 ARTICLE 23 ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Text of Article 23 ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 General ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Article 23.4 ................................................................................................................. 2 1 ARTICLE 23 1.1 Text of Article 23 Article 23 Additional Protection for Geographical Indications for Wines and Spirits 1. Each Member shall provide the legal means for interested parties to prevent use of a geographical indication identifying wines for wines not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication in question or identifying spirits for spirits not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication in question, even where the true origin of the goods is indicated or the geographical indication is used in translation or accompanied by expressions such as "kind", "type", "style", "imitation" or the like.4 (footnote original) 4 Notwithstanding the first sentence of Article 42, Members may, with respect to these obligations, instead provide for enforcement by administrative action. 2. The registration of a trademark for wines which contains or consists of a geographical indication identifying wines or for spirits which
    [Show full text]