YEAR 2005 SPECIAL 301 REVIEW - JORDAN

UNCLAS AMMAN 001701 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR NEA/ELA STATE ALSO FOR EB/IPE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KIPR ECON ETRD JO SUBJECT: YEAR 2005 SPECIAL 301 REVIEW - JORDAN REF: A. AMMAN 01697 ¶B. STATE 24592 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. FOR USG USE ONLY. NOT FOR RELEASE ON THE INTERNET. (SBU) Ref (A) outlines recent activities in Jordan regarding intellectual property rights, from passage of new, FTA-compliant copyright law amendments, to training in IPR enforcement. Overall, post believes the GOJ is showing a strong commitment to IPR in many of the areas outlined in ref (B). Although by no means a perfect exemplar of IPR enforcement - Playstation games and pirated DVDs are still available from small-scale street hawkers in urban areas -- Jordan is constantly improving, and working with private, licensed distributors to suppress the illegal trade. Post's comments on the areas of review listed in ref (B) follow: A) Optical Media Piracy: Jordan, as a major transit trading economy, is the site of some transited pirated optical media but not a significant location for their production. B) Use/Procurement of Government Software: The Jordanian Government is dedicated to stamping out what was previously a fairly common activity -- the use of software on multiple stations in government agencies. In April-May 2004, the Prime Minister issued a decree reminding government departments that all software used on GOJ computers should be properly licensed. This was followed by a publicity campaign. C) TRIPS Compliance 1) Amendments to existing legislation: as reported ref (A),the GOJ recently passed a series of amendments to the copyright law to bring it closely into conformity with the GOJ's commitments under the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the U.S. The GOJ is currently reviewing laws and regulations regarding patents and trademarks, especially as they relate to international conventions. 2) and 3) We have no evidence of new efforts to enact new IP-related legislation, given that Jordan has revamped over 200 laws in the last six years, with a special effort to conform with WTO requirements, including Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) obligations. However, a committee in the Jordan Food and Drug Administration is currently working on regulations that will clarify ongoing practices of data exclusivity protections for pharmaceuticals; to date, the proposed regulations have explicitly referred to FTA obligations for data protection. As the Special 301 report for 2004 indicated, Jordan in the first half of 2004 became a party to the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Per ref (B),post has alerted the government of Jordan to the ongoing Special 301 review. HALE