US embassy cable - 03AMMAN2009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002009 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR NED SAUMS 
USDOC FOR 4520/ITA/MAC/ONE/COBERG 
STATE PASS USPTO FOR URBAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, KIPR, JO 
SUBJECT: Jordanian IPR Enforcement: Good on Interdiction, 
Weak on Prosecution 
 
Ref: Amman 1233 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  (u)  The GOJ has made good progress implementing 
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) legislation in the last 
two years.  As a result, the share of pirated material in 
the market has dropped considerably since 2000.  Despite 
this progress, though, the current system has some flaws. 
There is a need to improve coordination between departments 
and to improve the human and financial resources of 
implementing bodies (notably the National Library).   The 
IPR legislation itself has some limitations that need 
addressing as well, in particular the overlap between civil 
and criminal law that allows most IPR violators to escape 
serious punishment.  We continue to work with a number of 
GOJ agencies to encourage continued reform and improvement 
of the IPR environment.  End summary. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
What Works:  Customs Interdiction Procedures 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (u)  Current GOJ Customs procedure differentiates 
between commercial shipments and personal items 
accompanying travelers.  Commercial shipments arriving at 
any point of entry must be cleared at one of the main 
customs clearing centers - the Queen Alia International 
Airport (QAIA) and the Amman Customs House. Under current 
practice, more than 20 copies of a single or multiple 
titles (for a/v and software products) constitute 
"commercial quantities."  Personal a/v or software property 
is collected by the customs house of the point of entry and 
sent to the Amman Customs Clearing Center.  The traveler is 
given a receipt for redeeming his property in Amman. 
 
3.  (u)  Based on our observations at the Syrian border 
crossing points and the Amman Customs House, Jordanian 
customs officials are fairly adept at spotting and 
interdicting counterfeit goods.  While they do not have a 
"profile" developed for potential smugglers of pirated a/v 
and software goods, their professional experience - and 
periodic training from WIPO, USAID, and other organizations 
- gives them a good sense for spotting potential importers 
of such goods.  However, due to the small size of such 
products (hundreds can fit in a shoebox), it is extremely 
difficult for customs officials to completely stop the flow 
of pirated goods. 
 
4.  (u)  Once IPR-related goods arrive at the Amman 
Clearing Center, samples are sent to the Censorship Office 
in the Ministry of Information, which inspects it to ensure 
it does not contain "culturally or politically offensive" 
material (i.e., in most cases, pornography or items 
critical of the royal family).  The Censorship Office does 
not check for copyright infringements. 
 
5.  (u)  In parallel to this process, the clearing center 
assesses shipments for copyright infringements and informs 
the National Library (NL) in writing of receipt of 
questionable commercial shipments and any questionable 
personal items exceeding 20 CD's per traveler. If the NL 
concludes after inspecting the goods that they are pirated, 
they inform Customs, which in turn informs the registered 
authorized agents about the interdiction. The agent then 
has eight days to file a legal case against the importer. 
If the eight days pass without such an action from the 
agent, or if there is no registered agent, then Customs 
releases the pirated goods to the importer.  (Note:  This 
system places most of the initial prosecutorial burden on 
the registered agent.  End note.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
National Library Still Struggling to Exert Authority 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
6.    (u)    The National Library is part of the Ministry 
of Cultural Affairs.  Its Director General, Ma'amoun 
Talhouni, reports directly to the Minister of Cultural 
Affairs. In addition to its role of monitoring and 
registering copyrights, the Library has several functions 
that dilute its resources allocated to IPR enforcement, 
including archiving and repository functions for all 
Jordanian intellectual property productions and GOJ 
official documents, documenting national bibliographies, 
and supervising public libraries. The NL functions are 
spread over 9 departments, one of which is the Protection 
of IPR Office. While the Library is responsible for 
copyright enforcement related to printed materials, a/v and 
software, other aspects of IPR are the responsibility of 
other government departments. For example, the Ministry of 
Industry and Trade is responsible for trademark and patent 
enforcement, often in conjunction with other agencies (like 
the Health Ministry for new drug registrations, e.g.). 
 
7.  (u)  Current law entrusts the Library with monitoring 
the market for pirated printed, a/v, and software goods. 
Talhouni notes that the law limits the Library's authority 
to monitoring and inspection of licensed shops only. The 
Library is powerless to inspect or interdict street 
venders, for example.  Thus it is not uncommon for shop 
owners to store pirated goods close to their place of 
business but not physically inside it to avoid prosecution. 
 
8.  (u)  The Library has only six IPR officers on staff to 
conduct inspections of shops country-wide.  These officers 
are sometimes supported by local police forces at their 
request.  While this staff is dedicated and well-trained, 
it faces many technical obstacles to effective monitoring 
and interdiction.  When a Library officer finds pirated 
materials in a licensed shop, it confiscates the materials 
and proceeds to legal action.  However, since registered 
agents are frequently unwilling to press charges against 
violators for fear of alienating customers and losing 
legitimate sales, much of the Library's work goes for 
naught. 
 
9.  (u)  At the same time, the technical process for 
confiscating goods is cumbersome - officers must catalogue 
every copy of a title they take, often by hand, to 
facilitate return of the merchandise to the shopkeeper if 
it turns out to be legitimate or the registered agent does 
not prosecute.  And shopkeepers often sell pirated product 
only after-hours, when officers are not on duty to monitor 
the shops. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
What Doesn't Work: Legislation, Prosecution 
------------------------------------------- 
 
10.  (u)  The Jordan Intellectual Property Association 
(JIPA) reports a significant improvement in enforcement 
action on copyright issues by the GOJ.  According to their 
statistics, in the year 2000 no CD's were confiscated, 
1,782 were confiscated in 2001, and 37,084 in 2002.  They 
note also that the Library brought 6 copyright infringement 
cases before the courts in 2000, compared to 149 in 2001 
and 274 in 2002.  A local law office specializing in IPR 
similarly noted that while in 1995, 87% of all CD's on the 
local market were pirated, the number dropped to 67% by 
2002. 
 
11.  (u)  Despite this improvement, though, most agents, 
lawyers, and even enforcement bodies maintain that current 
laws are not strong enough to fully deter violators. The 
current legislation limits the jurisdiction of the Library 
to licensed shops, does not allow Customs or the Library to 
take legal action against violators absent a complaint by 
the relevant authorized agent, and allows judges to reduce 
FTA- and WTO-mandated sentences for violators, making fines 
far less of a deterrent to selling unauthorized goods. 
 
12.  (u)  Jordan does not have a special court dedicated to 
adjudicating intellectual property cases.  IPR lawyers 
complain that courts may take several months, and sometimes 
more than a year or two, to reach a verdict on IP related 
complaints.  And even when those complaints are 
successfully prosecuted, they are frequently overruled on 
appeal or by the Supreme Court, as appellate and Supreme 
Court judges are less sensitized to the finer points of 
Jordan's new IPR laws, and tend in any case to have more 
sympathy for shop owners than registered agents. 
Meanwhile, as court cases drag on, the defendant is usually 
free to return to his shop, and often resumes sales of 
unauthorized product immediately. 
 
13.  (u)  Even cases that are ultimately successfully 
prosecuted, sources say, make little or no dent on the 
availability of illicit product.  Private sector sources 
note that judges tend to be lenient when issuing verdicts, 
and often rely on clauses in the criminal and penal codes 
to reduce penalties for IPR violations.  Thus a guilty 
party facing an initial penalty of JD 6,000 ($8,460) under 
civil law will usually have his sentence dramatically 
reduced to an insignificant amount, in some cases as low as 
JD 20 ($28) by appellate court judges under the 
"humanitarian relief" clause of the criminal code (Article 
100), which gives the court the latitude to modify 
sentences that would cause undue hardship on the 
convicted's family. This is possible since although the IP 
law is a civil law, it has a penal aspect to it in the form 
of fine and/or imprisonment that allows judges to invoke 
articles from otherwise irrelevant criminal or penal codes. 
As a result, IPR violators go essentially unpunished, 
paying off their fines through sales of additional illicit 
product in a matter of hours. 
 
----------------- 
Fixing the System 
----------------- 
 
14.  (u)  Despite its shortcomings, Jordan's IPR regime is 
lauded by international IPR watchers as a model for the 
region.  The GOJ remains willing and eager to improve its 
protection of intellectual property rights, seeing a 
stronger regime as an excellent marketing tool for 
attracting knowledge-based investments into the kingdom. 
Jordan is keen to build a "knowledge-based economy," and 
thus should continue to respond favorably to any overtures 
that would help it improve IPR protections. 
 
15.  (u)  An AMIR-funded study of Jordan's IPR regime, 
published on July 17, 2002, praised the work of the 
National Library, and noted areas where additional 
resources and training would help improve the Library's 
ability to enforce IPR laws in Jordan.  Using this report 
as a starting point, we are working with the Library, 
Customs, and the private sector to identify programs that 
could be put to best use to improve capacity in the 
government, including the courts, to police IPR violators. 
In addition to training programs through USAID, we are 
looking at ways to better use International Visitor (IV) 
and guest speaker programs to heighten IPR awareness in 
Jordan's government structure, the local business 
community, and the press.  For example, we plan to send a 
group of publishers on an IV program next fiscal year, 
during which they will be exposed to IPR issues in the U.S. 
 
16.  (u)  We will also soon begin to look at IPR-related 
legislation itself, with an eye toward improving the 
foundation on which good IPR enforcement is based.  This 
could mean, inter alia, finding a way to deconflict 
Jordan's civil and criminal laws so that decisions made in 
one arena are not reversed on technicalities in another. 
It could also mean looking at current enforcement laws to 
find ways to broaden the scope of the Library's authority, 
and to improve communications among various government 
agencies involved in IPR enforcement.  Ultimately, we may 
also look at the feasibility of encouraging the GOJ to move 
the copyright function out of the Library and put it, for 
example, in the Trade Ministry, where it could be better 
funded and staffed. 
GNEHM