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At-a-glance: Copyright Office PO Box 6070 Amman Tel: 96279 554 44 99; (9626) 566 27 85 Fax: (9626) 566 28 65 Email: director.g@nl.gov.jo; mttalhouni@yahoo.com Industrial Property Office El-Difah El Madani Street, Amman PO Box 2019, 11181 Amman Tel:... [more]

The Jordanian IP market took steps forward and steps back last year, moving on in some areas but continuing to be hamstrung in others.

"Our market has been attracting more international brands which means more attempts to provide low quality imitations of well-known products," says a partner, who went on to explain that this has led to an increased belligerence among brand owners in protecting their IP assets.

However, there is a problem with contentious cases: "The biggest challenge is the court system and the lack of specialised IP judges. The courts in Jordan still find it hard to provide enough judges to handle complicated IP infringement cases, which means the cases have a long processing time."

On the legislative side, little has changed, though the Jordanian Intellectual Property Office has made a small adjustment in trade marks. Instead of class headings, applicants should now mention their list of goods as they are referred to in the tenth version of the Nice classification system.

In prosecution, things too remain pretty much as was: "There has been a stable increase in trade mark applications in Jordan with a slow growth with respect to patent applications."

Professionals see an upward trend in designs in other Middle Eastern jurisdictions, and expect Jordan to see something similar soon too.