JORDAN IPR UPDATE: SLOW PROGRESS IN REVISING LAWS AND

UNCLAS AMMAN 002929 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ELA AND EEB STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR (GROVES, FRANCESKI) STATE PLEASE PASS TO USPTO (LEIFMAN, REVES) STATE PLEASE PASS TO LOC (METZGER) DHS FOR ICE (LOVETT) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR JO SUBJECT: JORDAN IPR UPDATE: SLOW PROGRESS IN REVISING LAWS AND CREATING A NEW IPR ORGANIZATION REFS: AMMAN 2420 ¶1. (SBU) Jordan described in September, as part of the World Trade Organization Trade Policy Review process, its unrealized plans to establish an umbrella IPR organization; Jordan had first announced these plans at the September 2006 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Joint Committee meetings in Amman. Khaled Arabeyyat, Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) Director of Industrial Property Protection Directorate asserted that the plan, developed with the help of a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) advisor, reflects MOIT's strategic goals and fits well in the broader GOJ National Agenda. He admitted, however, that implementation has been slow and predicted that establishing this organization would face resistance in the parliament. He said the parliament has sought to establish a moratorium on new agencies as a cost-cutting move. He said exceptions had been and will be made but commented it would not be easy. Sluggish Progress on Standards Laws -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Jordan Institute for Standards and Metrology (JISM) Director General Yassin Khayyat said that his agency had made progress on re-drafting amendments to the JISM law including amendments which would bring Jordan into compliance with FTA IPR border enforcement commitments. The law was previously brought before the cabinet, the final step before submission to parliament, and was rejected. He said he hoped to meet October 23 with Justice Minister Ayman Odeh, the most critical official of the previous version, to resolve any outstanding concerns. Khayyat hypothesized that the law had faced difficulties because it was technical, dealing with the scientific testing the agency does to identify fakes and other purposes, and that both the lawyers who drafted it and the ministers who reviewed it lacked the technical expertise to fully understand it. USG-sponsored IPR Training Continues -------------- ¶3. (U) USPTO's commitment to IPR training for Jordanian officials continues. Four judges who are increasingly focusing their caseloads on intellectual property cases traveled October 19 to the United States to attend training intended for judges. Two Jordanian policymakers from the National Library, which is responsible for copyright protection, were also recently selected to attend an upcoming session on copyright Law and policy. Enhancements to Trademark Software -------------- ¶4. (SBU) EconOffs pressed MoIT's Arabeyyat on the status of the USPTO- and USAID-sponsored trademark database and Jordan's homegrown e-government project (reftel). Arabeyyat admitted that the Jordanian system under development by Yarmouk University is still delayed and inoperable despite multiple lapsed deadlines most recently in August. Arabeyyat further admitted that this Jordanian system is holding up the USPTO system. He said that the MOIT Minister Amer Hadidi has given the university "one last chance" that would start in November 2008, but said that if the minister changed, which he thought could happen, the university would likely receive an additional "last chance" from the successor. Comment: Given the recent appointment of a new Chief of the Royal Court, other agency head changes, and historically brief tenures for cabinet ministers, rumor-mongering has started to crescendo. Hadidi is a respected technocrat with previous governmental experience so any departure would not be related to performance. End comment. Visit Amman's Classified Website at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman BEECROFT