The above deposit will take effect from 07 April 2025, such that any Hague design registration applied for on, or after, this date will be able to designate Saudi Arabia. Similarly, entities that have a causal connection to Saudi Arabia, such as those having a commercial establishment in Saudi Arabia; those domiciled in Saudi Arabia; or those that are a resident/national of Saudi Arabia, will be able to make usage of the Hague design registration system from this date.

For those contemplating a designation of Saudi Arabia in a Hague design registration system, it appears at the time of writing that such a designation will be better suited to Hague design registrations which only contain a single design, as opposed to those containing multiple designs (such as registrations typically designating the UK and EU, where the presence of multiple designs within the Hague design registration is much more tolerated).

Any designation of Saudi Arabia in a Hague design registration will also practically limit the maximum period in which publication of the Hague design registration can be deferred to no more than 12 months from the date when the Hague design registration is applied for.

The period in which the Saudi Arabian design registry may object to any Hague design registration designating its territory will also be set at 12 months, rather than the typical six months, from the date when the Hague design registration is published.

The official fees for adding a Saudi Arabia designation to a Hague design registration are to be set under the relatively cheap ‘level two’ scale of standard designation fees, which currently stand at 60 CHF for the first design, and 20 CHF* for each additional design in the same registration (*noting the above foreseen difficulties in successfully protecting multiple designs in a single Hague design registration which designates Saudi Arabia). Thus to place these official fees into perspective, for a single Hague design registration, containing one design which itself contains seven views/reproductions, and which designates the UK; the EU; and Saudi Arabia, this would equate to official fees in the order of 677 CHF (around £600 at the time of writing), a very modest amount indeed!