Patent Law

Official Gazette No. 4389 dated 1.11.1999

and its amendment by:

Temporary Law No. 71 for the Year 2001

Official Gazette No. 4520 dated 2.12.2001

Patent Regulations official Gazette No. 4522 dated 13.12.2001

Article 1

This Law (amended patent Law of 2001) shall be read in conjunction with Law No. 32 of 1999, referred to herein as original Law, and shall be deemed one Law; and shall be effective thirty days after the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 2

The following terms and expressions wherever mentioned in this law shall have the meanings assigned against them unless the context requires otherwise:

• The Ministry: The Ministry of Trade & Industry.

• The Minister: The Minister of Trade & Industry.

• The Invention: Any innovative idea, in any of the fields of technology, which relates to a product or a manufacturing process or both and practically solves a specific problem in any of those fields.

• The Patent: The granted certificate for the invention protection.

• The Patentee: The natural or legal person to whom the patent is granted.

• The Register: The Patents Register.

• The Registrar: The Patents Registrar of the Ministry.

Article 3

The invention shall be patentable if it meets the following conditions:

1. If it is novel as regards the prior industrial art and is unprecedented as regards disclosure to the public in any place in the world by means of written or oral disclosure, by use, or by any other way which allows awareness of the invention’s content before the relevant filing date of the patent application or the priority of the application claimed under the provisions of this law.

2. The disclosure of the invention to the public shall not be taken into account if it occurred twelve months before the filing date of the application or before its priority date, if any, and it occurred due to actions taken by the applicant or his predecessor or due to an abuse made by third parties against the applicant or his predecessor.

B. If it involves an inventive step that, having regard to the prior art relevant to the patent application, it would not have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the prior art of the invention subject.

C. If it is industrially applicable that it can be made or used in any type of agriculture, fishing, service or industry in their widest senses including handicraft.

Article 4

A patent shall not be granted in the following cases:

1. The inventions whose exploitation is detrimental to public order or public morality.

2. The inventions whose non-exploitation is necessary to protect the life and health of humans, animals and plants or to avoid severe damage to the environment.

For implementing the provisions of items (1) and (2) of this paragraph, non-granting of protection shall not be provided for just because such patent exploitation is disallowed under other enforceable laws.

B. Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods.

C. Diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods necessary for the treatment of humans or animals.

D. Plants and animals other than microorganisms.

E. Biological methods for the reproduction of plants and animals other than non-biological and microbiological methods.

Article 5

The right to a patent grant shall be as follows:

A. To the inventor or his successor.

1. If the invention is a result of joint efforts among several persons, all of them shall be equal partners in the patent unless otherwise is agreed upon.

2. If several persons think up a patent separately and independently, then the right shall belong to the applicant who files it before the others do.

C. To the benefit of the employer, if the invention conducted by the employee during his employment, relates to the activities or business of the employer, or if the employee uses in his attempt to conduct his invention the experiences, business, information, instruments or the articles of the employer under his own disposal, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing.

D. To the benefit of the employee, if the invention conducted, is not related to the activities or business of the employer and the employee does not use in his attempt to conduct this invention the experiences, information, instruments or raw materials of the employer, under the employee’s own disposal, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing.

Article 6

Canceled.

Article 7

A. A register called the Patents of Inventions Register shall be kept in the Ministry under the supervision of the Registrar. All the particulars relating to inventions shall be recorded therein including the owners’ names and addresses, the granted patents and all legal disposals and recordals including the following:

1. Any transfer or assignment or license to third parties to use with due consideration to the confidentiality of the license contract.

2. Mortgage or seizure of the patent or any limitation on its use.

B. The public may review the Register as per the regulations to be issued by the Minister for this purpose and to be published in the official Gazette.

C. The computer may be used for recording patents and their particulars and the particulars and extracts of the computer shall be binding to all.

Registering Patents

Article 8

A. Any person shall be entitled to file a patent application on the form prescribed for this purpose as per the following procedure:

1. A patent application shall be submitted to the Registrar with the detailed description of the invention. The description shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a person having ordinary skill in the art while stating the best mode for carrying out the invention known to him on the application date or the priority date.

2. The patent owner shall file complete particulars on the applications on the same patent subject matter which he filed in other countries including the results of such applications. If applications relating to biologic substances or microorganisms are filed, the applicant shall submit a proof that he filed specimen to one of the specialized centers.

3. The application shall be accompanied by a statement justifying the applicant’s right to the patent.

4. The application shall determine the claims which the applicant wishes to protect. The claims shall be concise and clear and be fully supported by the whole description, and the drawings may be used in interpreting the claims.

5. The application shall include an abstract of the patent specification, and the new elements to be protected, inventor’s and applicant’s names and addresses, for the purposes of publication in the Official Gazette.

B. The date on which the Registrar receives the application shall be regarded as its filing date provided that it meets the requirements and it is accompanied by the documents prescribed in the regulations to be issued for this purpose.

C. The Registrar may request the applicant to make amendments of the application and to complete the required particulars prescribed by the law or regulations provided that the amendments don’t exceed what has been disclosed in the original application. If the applicant doesn’t do so during the period to be fixed in the regulations, then the applicant will be regarded to have lost his right in the application under a decision of the Registrar and the applicant may appeal the decision to the High Court of Justice within 60 days of the decision notification date.

Article 9

A. The application for the registration of a patent shall be limited only to one invention or a group of related inventions as to constitute a single general inventive concept.

B. The applicant may introduce amendments to his application, before it is granted, provided that such amendments don’t exceed what has been disclosed in the original application.

C. The applicant may divide his application to sub-applications, before the patent is granted, provided that each sub-application doesn’t exceed what has been disclosed in the original application. Each of the sub-applications shall have the original filing date or the original priority date if any.

Article 10

1. The applicant may include a notice of priority claim of a national, regional or international application which he or his predecessor previously filed in any state which relates to Jordan by a bilateral or multilateral agreement for the protection of industrial property provided that the application is filed in the Kingdom within a period of no more than 12 months calculated from the day following the filing day of the first application.

2. If the application includes the priority notice, then the Registrar may ask the applicant to submit, during the period prescribed in the regulations, a certified copy of the original application from the office with which the application has been filed. In this case the application date shall be regarded as the same date on which the application was filed in the foreign country as per the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

B. If the applicant does not prove priority under paragraph (A) of this Article, then his application shall be recorded on the date it is filed with the Registrar.

Article 11

Notwithstanding the provisions of this law, the heirs to the dead inventor who possesses an invention and who has not applied for its registration shall have the right to apply for its registration in their names provided that the name of the true inventor is mentioned.

Article 12

The applicant may file amendment applications to the patent specifications or explanatory drawings before it is published in the Official Gazette by indicating the nature of the amendment or its justifications; provided that such amendments don’t change the essence of the invention or what has been disclosed in the original application and provided that the applications to amend go through the same procedures as those of the original application for registration.

Article 13

A. If the application meets the conditions prescribed in this law, the Registrar shall declare his acceptance of it and grant the applicant a preliminary acceptance. Then he shall publish a notice in the Official Gazette including the abstract of the invention or any drawings or particulars relating thereto, if any. The period in which publication should take place and the particulars to be published shall be determined in the regulations to be issued for this purpose.

1. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 36 of this law, the applicant shall have a provisional protection during the period between the acceptance date and the grant date. In this case the applicant shall have the right to exploit the invention and to take measures to prove any infringement upon his invention during this period.

2. The applicant shall be entitled to take, after the patent grant, any legal measures to stop an infringement upon his patent and to claim damages if the infringement continues.

Article 14

Any person may, within 3 months of the publication date of the notice of preliminary acceptance in the Official Gazette, notify the Registrar of his opposition to the patent grant. The opposition procedures, the cases in which it is allowed to extend the opposition period, and the notifications shall be determined in the regulations to be issued for this purpose.

Article 15

A. If no opposition is filed to the patent grant or if the filed opposition is rejected, the decision granting the patent shall be issued after the payment of the prescribed fees.

B. If the applicant dies before the patent is granted, the patent shall be granted to his heirs or his legal successor after submitting the supporting documents.

Article 16

The Registrar shall not be held answerable as regards the novelty, inventive step, industrial applicability, the standardization compliance, or the usefulness of the invention patent, and all those shall rest with the patentee.

Article 17

The duration of the patent of invention shall be for 20 years as of the date of the application for registration under the provisions of this law.

Article 18

A. If a patent is granted and if its patentee applies for an additional invention due to any improvement or amendment thereto, he may obtain a patent of addition and it shall be valid for the remaining period of the original patent of invention.

B. The patent of addition shall be subject to the provisions of this law relating to the original patent.

Article 19

The fees which shall be levied on the patent applications, grants and additional patents shall be determined in the regulations to be issued for this purpose.

Article 20

A. A special Regulation shall be issued for providing for the procedures and bases for the temporary protection of the inventions displayed by their inventors in exhibitions in the Kingdom or abroad.

B. The temporary protection governed in paragraph (A) of this Article shall not entail extending the priority period provided for in this law.

The Patentee Rights

Article 21

A. A patent shall grant its owner the following rights:

1. Where the subject of the patent is a product, the right to prevent any person who hasn’t obtained the owner’s authorization from making, exploiting, using, offering for sale, selling or importing that product.

2. Where the subject of the patent is an industrial process, the rights to prevent any person who hasn’t obtained the owner’s authorization from using the process or the product directly made by the process, or offering for sale, or selling or importing the product.

B. The patentee shall be entitled to assign it to third parties or to license its use.

C. Notwithstanding any conflicting provision in this law or any other law, all types of scientific research and development and filing applications for obtaining marketing permits carried out before the elapse of the patent protection period shall not be regarded as infringement neither civil nor criminal.

Compulsory Licenses for Patent Exploitation

Article 22

The Minister may grant a license to use a patent to third parties without obtaining the patentee’s consent in any of the following cases exclusively:

A. If the use of the patent by the state authorities or licensed third parties is a necessity for national defense or emergency or for noncommercial public good provided that the patentee is notified as soon as it becomes possible.

1. If the patentee doesn’t exploit it or exploits it insufficiently before the elapse of 4 years as of the application date or 3 years as of the granting date, the period to be applied is the one that elapses later. However, the Minister may grant the patentee an additional grace period if he deems that reasons beyond the control of the patentee have prevented exploitation.

2. For the purposes of item (1) of this paragraph, and without prejudice to the provisions of the related International Conventions, the importation of the subject goods of the patent to the kingdom shall be deemed utilization of the patent.

C. If the patentee exercises his rights in such a way as to prevent others from competing fairly.

Article 23

The following shall be taken into consideration when compulsory licenses are granted:

A. Each application for a license shall be decided separately for its specific conditions and circumstances.