الحماية القانونية لصناعة العطور في المملكة العربية السعودية وتحديات الإعلان المقارن للعطور المستنسخة

* The author is grateful to Dr. Michael Townsend, Dr. Abdullah Alkholi, and Professor Abdulhadi AlGhamdi for their thoughtful feedback on this Article.

“GCC Perfume Market Size, Share, Trends and Forecast by Price, Gender, Product, and Region, 2025–2033,” Research and Markets, accessed September 5, 2025, https://www.researchandmarkets.com/report/middle-east-perfume-market?srsltid=AfmBOopgY9l5sTpX8KStKA_cLs_2cmyl7Oeuh5tIM60iX2qzopAqt3KE.

“Fragrances-Saudi Arabia,” Statista, accessed July 15, 2025, https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/beauty-personal-care/fragrances/saudi-arabia.

“Perfume Dupes Market Size and Share Outlook: Forecast Trends and Growth Analysis Report (2025–2034),” Research and Markets, accessed September 5, 2025, https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/6111907/perfume-dupes-market-size-share-outlook#rela3-5946506.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, Royal Decree No. M/45, 10 Rabi al-awwal 1445 A.H. (Sept. 25, 2023) Art. (2).

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 43.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 44(a).

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 43.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 44(b).

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 43.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 44(c).

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 19(a).

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 47(a).

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 47(b).

Viorel Roş and Andreea Livădariu, “The Protection of Olfactory Creations,” Challenges of the Knowledge Society (2019): 930.

Giorgia Colonnello, Fashion Changes, Intellectual Property Endures: Fashion Intellectual Property Law in the European Union’s Internal Market (Master’s thesis, Luiss Guido Carli University, 2023).

See Roş and Livădariu, “Protection of Olfactory Creations,” 930.

Charles Cronin, “Lost and Found: Intellectual Property of the Fragrance Industry, from Trade Secret to Trade Dress,” N.Y.U. Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law 5 (2015): 256

Cronin, “Lost and Found,” 256; Charles Cronin, “Law and Odor: Elusive Copyright and Other IP Protection for Fragrances,” in Non-Conventional Copyright, ed. Enrico Bonadio and Nicola Lucchi (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 340–54.

Cronin, “Lost and Found,” 256.

Cronin, “Lost and Found,” 256; Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 19(a).

See AlGhamdi, Huquq al-Milkiyāt al-Fikriyah,126.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 2.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 59.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 59.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 60.

Abdulhadi AlGhamdi, Huquq al-Milkiyāt al-Fikriyah fī al-Anẓimah al-Saʿūdiyyah wa al-Khalījiyyah al-Muwaḥḥadah wa al-Ittiqāʿiyyāt al-Duwaliyyah [Translation: Intellectual Property Rights in Saudi Laws, Unified Gulf Regulations, and International Agreements], 2nd ed. (2024), 209.

Law of Patents, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits, Plant Varieties, and Industrial Designs, art. 19(d).

The Gulf Cooperation Council Trademark Law, Royal Decree No. M/49, 1 Jumada al-Thani 1442 A.H. (January 14, 2021), art. 2.

GCC Trademark Law, Royal Decree No. M/49, art. 2.

GCC Trademark Law, Royal Decree No. M/49, art. 3; see also AlGhamdi, Huquq al-Milkiyāt al-Fikriyah, 286-294; Simon Geiregat, “Trademark Protection for Smells, Tastes, and Feels: A Critical Analysis of Three Non-Visual Signs in the EU,” IIC – International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law 53, no. 2 (2022): 219.

GCC Trademark Law, Royal Decree No. M/49, art. 20.

GCC Trademark Law, Royal Decree No. M/49, art. 42.

Ibid.

Olivia Su, “Odor in the Courts-Extending Copyright Protection to Perfumes May Not Be So Nonscentsical: An Investigation of the Legal Bulwarks Available for Fine Fragrances amid Advancing Reverse Engineering Technology,” S. Cal. Interdisc. LJ 23 (2014): 663.

Su, “Odor in the Courts,” 663; Abhijeet Kumar, “Protecting Smell Marks: Breaking Conventionality,” Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 21 (2016): 129; see generally Martin Senftleben, “Trade Mark Protection for Smells, Tastes, and Feels: A Critical Analysis of Three Non-Visual Signs in the EU,” European Intellectual Property Review 40 (2022): 56; Zyad Alqurashi, ʿUsus wa Mabādiʾ Ḥuqūq al-Milkiyyah al-Fikriyyah fī al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Saʿūdiyyah [Translation: Foundations and Principles of Intellectual Property Rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia], 2nd ed. (Dar Hafiz, 2023), 121

Regulations for the Protection of Confidential Commercial Information, Ministerial Decision No. 4319, 1 Jumādā al-ʾŪlā 1426 A.H. (June 1, 2005), art. 1.

See AlGhamdi, Huquq al-Milkiyāt al-Fikriyah, 239.

AlGhamdi, Huquq al-Milkiyāt al-Fikriyah,250; see also Delia Gervin, “You Can Stand Under My Umbrella: Weighing Trade Secret Protection against the Need for Greater Transparency in Perfume and Fragranced Product Labeling,” Journal of Intellectual Property Law 15 (2008): 315.

Margaret M. Donnelly, “Talking Scents: Copyrightability of Fragrance & Intellectual Property Protection in the Perfume Industry,” University of Richmond Law Review 58 (2023): 51; Leon Calleja, “Why Copyright Law Lacks Taste and Scents,” Journal of Intellectual Property Law 21 (2013): 1; Charles Cronin, “Genius in a Bottle: Perfume, Copyright, and Human Perception,” Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 56 (2008): 427; Amara Lopez, “Digitizing Scent and Flavor: A Copyright Perspective,” Michigan Technology Law Review 26 (2019): 347; but see Thomas G. Field, Jr., “Copyright Protection for Perfumes,” IDEA: The Intellectual Property Law Review 45 (2004): 19.

Donnelly, “Talking Scents,” 58; Calleja, “Why Copyright Law Lacks Taste and Scents,” 1; Cronin, “Genius in a Bottle,” 430; Lopez, “Digitizing Scent and Flavor,” 352; Field, “Copyright Protection for Perfumes,” 20.

Alexandra J. Roberts, “Dupes,” NYU J. Intell. Prop. & Ent. L. 14 (2024): 94.

Roberts, “Dupes,” 94.

Su, “Odor in the Courts,” 663.

Roberts, “Dupes,” 94.

See F. Reagan, K. A. Tejasukmana, and M. Toby, “The Fine Line between Inspiration and Imitation: Delving into the Intersection of Fashion Dupes, Law, and Society,” Anthology: Inside Intellectual Property Rights 3 (2025): 199; Emma Goolsby, “Have You Been Duped? Counterfeiting and Contributory Trademark Infringement in the World of E-Commerce, Social Media, and Influencers,” Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship and the Law 18 (2025): 73; Miranda Nolan, “How Intellectual Property Laws Allow for Fashion Dupes,” Saint Louis University Law Journal Online (2023).

Reagan, Tejasukmana, and Toby, “Fine Line between Inspiration and Imitation,” 199; Goolsby, “Have You Been Duped?” 73.

Donnelly, “Talking Scents,” 58

Goolsby, “Have You Been Duped?” 73; Nolan, “How Intellectual Property Laws Allow for Fashion Dupes.”; Alexandra Adwani and Tilde Sinnerdal, The Rise of Dupe Culture: A Qualitative Study on the Construction of an Emergent Digital Consumer Culture (Master’s thesis, Lund University, 2024).

Roberts, “Dupes,” 94; Nicole Dunn, “A Dupe or Just Duped?: An Analysis of the History and Policy behind Counterfeit Cosmetics and Social Media’s Role in Perpetuating Its Sales,” Journal of Health and Biomedical Law 20 (2023): 92.

Su, “Odor in the Courts,” 663.

“Perfume Dupes Market Size and Share Outlook: Forecast Trends and Growth Analysis Report (2025–2034),” Expert Market Research, accessed September 5, 2025, https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/perfume-dupe-market.

Ibid.

Kaylene C. Williams and Robert A. Page Jr., “Comparative Advertising as a Competitive Tool,” Journal of Management Development and Competitiveness 7 (2013): 47; William L. Wilkie and Paul W. Farris, “Comparison Advertising: Problems and Potential,” Journal of Marketing 39 (1975): 7; Janina Rebecca Kauz and Johanna F. Gollnhofer, “The Power of the Unspoken: How Brands Implicitly Reference Specific Brands in Indirect Comparative Advertising,” Journal of Product and Brand Management 34 (2025).

Williams and Page, “Comparative Advertising as a Competitive Tool,” 47.

Ibid.

Dean K. Fueroghne, Law and Advertising: A Guide to Current Legal Issues, 4th ed. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017), 158.

Fueroghne, Law and Advertising, 158.

Williams and Page, “Comparative Advertising as a Competitive Tool,” 47; Kauz and Gollnhofer, “Power of the Unspoken.”

Fueroghne, Law and Advertising, 158.

Ibid.

Fueroghne, Law and Advertising, 160.

Kajal Chandra and Anannya Gupta, “Comparative Advertising: Legality, Implications, and Need for Stricter Regulations,” Indian Journal of Law and Legal Information 14 (2021): 148; Uphar Shukla, “Comparative Advertising and Product Disparagement vis-à-vis Trademark Law,” Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 11 (2006): 409; Weronika Woźna-Burdziak, “A Practical Analysis of Comparative Advertising,” European Research Studies Journal 24 (2021): 1085; Williams and Page, “Comparative Advertising as a Competitive Tool,” 47.

Shukla, “Comparative Advertising and Product Disparagement vis-à-vis Trademark Law,” 409.

Ibid.

Roberts, “Dupes,” 94; Katya Assaf-Zakharov, “Non-Traditional Trademark Protection as (Non-Traditional) Means of Cultural Control,” in The Protection of Non-Traditional Trademarks: Critical Perspectives, ed. Irene Calboli and Martin Senftleben (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 362–384.

See Qiqi Lou, Consumer Confusion: The Sole Focus of Trademark Law (2024); Alexis Theoharidis, “The Devil Wears Dupes: Legal Implications of ‘Dupe Culture’ in the Fashion Industry and How Trademark Law Should Adapt,” Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review 9 (2025): 213; Lazaros G. Grigoriadis, “Comparing the Trademark Protections in Comparative and Keyword Advertising in the United States and European Union,” California Western International Law Journal 44 (2014): 149.

Ibid.

For purposes of this paper, the analysis of comparative advertising in the United States will be limited to the federal framework rather than state-level regulation.

16 C.F.R. § 14.15(b) (2024); Fueroghne, Law and Advertising, 156.

16 C.F.R. § 14.15(b) (2024).

Ibid.

Grigoriadis, “Comparing the Trademark Protections in Comparative and Keyword Advertising,” 149.

Ibid.

Donnelly, “Talking Scents,” 58.

Smith v. Chanel, Inc., 402 F.2d 562 (9th Cir. 1968); Grigoriadis, “Comparing the Trademark Protections in Comparative and Keyword Advertising,” 149.

Sherrell Perfumers, Inc. v. Revlon, Inc., 483 F. Supp. 903 (S.D.N.Y. 1979).

Directive 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 concerning misleading and comparative advertising, 2006 O.J. (L 376) 21; Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2015 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks, 2015 O.J. L 336/1.

Directive 2006/114/EC, 2006 O.J. L 376/21.

Grigoriadis, “Comparing the Trademark Protections in Comparative and Keyword Advertising,” 149.

Ibid.

Roberts, “Dupes,” 94.

Ibid.

Grigoriadis, “Comparing the Trademark Protections in Comparative and Keyword Advertising,” 149.

Directive (EU) 2015/2436, 2015 O.J. L 336/1.

Case C-487/07, L’Oréal SA v. Bellure NV, 2009 E.C.R. I-5185; Grigoriadis, “Comparing the Trademark Protections in Comparative and Keyword Advertising,” 149.

L’Oréal v. Bellure, Case C-487/07, ¶ 49.

Ibid.

“Consumer Protection Law,” Public Consultation Platform, accessed July 21, 2025, https://istitlaa.ncc.gov.sa/en/Trade/mci/Consumer/Pages/default.aspx

“Commercial Transactions Law,” Public Consultation Platform, accessed July 21, 2025, https://istitlaa.ncc.gov.sa/ar/trade/mci/ctl/Documents/مشروع%20نظام%20المعاملات%20التجارية.pdf