IP OVERVIEW OF JORDAN

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west and the Red Sea in its extreme south-west.[5] Jordan has a strategic location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe.

Jordan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000, becoming its 136th member. In 2001, it entered the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Patent

Novelty requirement in Jordan is absolute novelty. 12-month grace period applies starting from the first worldwide publication. Once an application is filed, it is examined with respect to compliance with the formalities and patentability provided for under the patent law.

An application should be filed within 12 months as of the date of the first filed application in order to claim a priority, or within 12 months as of the date of the first worldwide publication, but without claiming a priority. If a priority is claimed, the Jordanian patent office will not examine the application and they will depends on the examination results in Europe before issuing the acceptance/rejection decision, for limited cases, the Patent Office will depends on the examination results in USA.

Once the application is accepted, the bibliographic data of the subject application will be published in the official gazette, for opposition purposes. Within three months from publication, any interested party may file an opposition against the acceptance of the patent at the Patent Office.

The term of patent protection in Jordan is 20 years as from the filing date, and it is not possible to extend the term of protection. The application is subject to the payment of the prescribed annuity fees starting from the filing year, due at the time of registration. Further annual maintenance fees are payable on each anniversary of the filing date of the application. There is a grace period of six months for late payment of these annual maintenance fees with penalty fees.

Trademark

Once a trademark application is filed in Jordan, it is examined as to its registrability and existence of prior rights. Trademark applications accepted by the Registrar are published in the Official Gazette. There is a 3-month period open for filing opposition by any party. An opposition to the registration of a trademark should be prosecuted before the Registrar by a lawyer within 3 months as of the date of publication. The opposition case is referred to the High Court of Justice, if not settled before the Registrar, or if either party appeals the Registrar's decision. In the absence of an opposition, the relevant certificate of registration is issued.

A trademark registration according to the new law is valid for 10 years from the date of filing the application or from the priority date renewable for periods of 10 years each. Trademarks that have already been filed or registered before December 1, 1999, will remain valid according to the old law they shall be renewed every 10 years. The new trademark law provides for a one-year period for the late renewal of a trademark. If a trademark registration is not renewed within the grace period as of the date of expiration, it will be canceled automatically.

The owner of a lapsed mark due to non-renewal has the exclusive right to re-file the same trademark within one year from the expiry date. Any other interested party may file the same trademark after the expiry of another year.

Copyright

Jordan is a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Its copyright protection covers original works of literature, art and science. This includes works of art expressed in writing, sound, drawing, photography and motion, such as books, speeches, plays, musical compositions, films, applied art, 3-D works and computer software.

Jordanian publishers seeking protection of copyrightable works have to deposit four copies of the work with the National Library at the Ministry of Culture. The duration of protection for copyrighted material is the lifetime of the author plus 50 years following his/her death. The rights of performers and producers of phonograms shall be protected for 50 years, while the rights of broadcasting organizations shall be protected for 20 years.

The Ministry of Culture reserves the right to allow publication of the work of art, if the copyright holder has not done so, or if heirs do not publish it within 6 months of being informed to do so in writing.