US embassy cable - 05AMMAN1701

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