What 2026 Taught Middle East Licensing: 6 Lessons from a Year Built Under Pressure

Sep 30

3 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

Dr. Amer Bitar, Middle East licensing and market-entry strategist

2026 tested the Middle East licensing industry more than any recent year. Geopolitical tensions escalated into open conflict at the end of February, bringing airspace closures, flight cancellations, and disruption across the Gulf’s main commercial hubs. For an industry that depends on travel, face-to-face relationships, and long lead times, the effects were real.

In my Autumn 2026 column for Total Licensing, I looked at what the year actually changed. Here are the six lessons that matter most for brand owners and licensing executives.

1- Risk became part of the contract.

Force majeure and geopolitical risk clauses used to be boilerplate. This year they were negotiated in detail. Event cancellations, revised launch dates, supplychain flexibility, and alternative delivery became named scenarios in commercial agreements.

2- Capital got more disciplined

Entertainment, tourism, gaming, sports, and culture remain strategic priorities in the Gulf, but investors now put more weight on value realization and sustainable returns. The properties gaining traction combine recognizable IP, proven consumer demand, capable local partners, and a measurable route to revenue. The opening of Six Flags Qiddiya City showed licensed entertainment moving from vision to operation.

3- The region became an owner, not just a market

The clearest signal came in August, when a PIF-led consortium completed its acquisition of Electronic Arts. Regional investors are now taking positions across the full value chain, from content and characters to merchandise, sports, and experiences.

4- The legal groundwork caught up

Saudi Arabia introduced a new copyright law, replacing a framework that had stood for more than two decades. This matters most for homegrown IP, which needs documented ownership and real protection to be licensed across products and territories.

5- Rights administration grew up

The UAE introduced a collective management framework for music, joined the Locarno Agreement on industrial design classification, and reported a 35.4% rise in IP registrations in the first half of the year. Together, these build the systems that make licensing work: registering rights, licensing their use, collecting revenue, and addressing infringement.

6- Execution got local

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the wider region each have their own regulations, retail structures, and audiences. The strategies that worked best combined a broad regional vision with carefully sequenced local execution, not a single, one-size-fits-all launch.

What it meant for Licensing Horizons

We canceled both 2026 editions of Licensing Horizons, in Dubai and Riyadh, rather than hold them in conditions that couldn’t guarantee safe and meaningful participation. A webinar series launched in September instead, and planning is underway for Licensing Horizons Dubai on March 16, 2027.

Questions for licensing executives

How should agreements account for geopolitical risk without slowing deals to a standstill?
As regional ownership grows, how does it change the way you evaluate a Middle East partner?
How should partner selection and category sequencing adjust when markets move at different speeds?

The year didn’t teach the region that it needed to start owning its future. It showed that it already had.