To set up the company legally, and after doing the legal feasibility study of the project and analyzing the legal risks that it may face, there are some basic steps that must be taken so that the company can start its activity legally.
These steps are represented in three important steps, which is:
- - preparing the contracts and the documentary cycle for the company’s internal transactions with suppliers, customers, employees, or workers.
- - protecting the trademark, trade name, and other intellectual property elements.
- - starting the incorporation procedures stipulated in the Legal systems and regulations.
Preparing contracts!
The process of preparing and preparing contracts is the cornerstone of the company's relationship with all its clients, whether they are suppliers, workers, employees, or partners.
The founder or founders of the company should take care to place all their dealings with third parties within a sound contractual framework that guarantees the rights of the parties and shows their obligations towards each other so that legal protection can be extended to that contractual relationship at any time, especially when a dispute may arise or one of the parties breaches his obligations.
Among the most important contracts and documents that must be prepared are:
- - articles of incorporation (AOI) of the company.
- - Lease contract for the company's headquarters.
- - labor contracts.
- - Supply and distribution contracts.
- - Terms and conditions of e-commerce stores.
- - The company's internal regulations, including penalties, vacations, and work regulations.
Brand protection!
The process of registering a trademark in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is characterized by the ease of procedures, which is in line with the Kingdom’s vision 2030, which adopted digital transformation. The competence to register trademarks and other elements of intellectual property that we referred to in a previous article “Intellectual Property Protection” has been granted to the Saudi Authority of Intellectual property, whose mission is based on the preservation of intellectual property rights.
You must make sure that the brand components are available in your trademark before registering it, and these components are:
- Brand Identity: The way the public perceives your brand to know the company's purpose and competitive advantage.
- Brand personality: It is the component responsible for identifying and interacting with the audience by embodying the message that your activity adopts in your brand.
- Brand image: The actual way the public perceives your brand, and the brand's dominant reputation.
- Brand culture: This component expresses the company's core values, its method of working, and its performance based on those values.
The procedures for registering a trademark in Saudi Arabia begin with the examination and scrutiny of the trademark, where a specialized team conducts the process of examination, comparison, and research on whether there are similar trademarks in the Kingdom, or in countries that have international agreements with it.
A trademark registration application can be submitted through the authority’s website (saip.gov.sa), then choose the trademark service and submit a registration application, add the required data, then press the trademark registration button, then the Submit button!
After that, an amount of 1,000 riyals will be paid for the purpose of examination and auditing within 7 days from the date of submitting the application. If the application is accepted and it is ascertained that the mark is not similar or identical to another mark, an amount of 1575 riyals will be paid, and then the mark is published for a period of 60 days so that everyone with an interest can object the registration process.
If the 60-day period has passed without objection, an invoice will be issued for the final registration fees, which must be paid within 30 days of the invoice issuance date.
Finally, a trademark protection certificate will be issued, valid for ten years, and renewed after paying the prescribed fees.
Procedures and incorporation!
Saudi Arabia recently issued the new Companies Law, which will be in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, and encourage foreign investors to participate in important economic developments in Saudi Arabia.
The new law regulates all provisions related to companies, whether commercial, non-profit or professional, and enters into force 180 days after its publication on June 29, 2022, and the new version is expected to facilitate the establishment of companies. It also addresses some of the challenges of the private sector, including the challenges of family businesses, as it will regulate family ownership in the family business, its governance and management, work policy, employment of family members, profit distribution, and the challenges of small businesses through which business initiatives are active and achieve legal protection and justice. in litigation on a legislative basis.
According to the new system, the founder or founders submit an application for incorporation of the company to be registered in the Commercial Register, provided that the Memorandum of Association or Articles of Association and the necessary data for the company’s form are attached in Arabic. So from the concerned authorities, if any.