Copyright registration in Jordan. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in Western Asia. Jordan is classified by the World Bank as an “upper-middle-income” country. Jordan’s economy is relatively well-diversified. Trade and finance combined account for nearly one-third of GDP; transportation and communication, public utilities, and construction account for one-fifth, and mining and manufacturing constitute nearly another fifth. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Jordan.
Copyright in Jordan
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Jordan early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Jordan will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Jordan immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Jordan
Jordan is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1999.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Jordan is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Jordan will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Jordan is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Jordan
To obtain copyright registration in Jordan, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Jordan;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Jordan
The Jordanian Copyright Law and its Amendment No. (22) for the year 1992 is based on the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and does not contain a definition of copyright.
However, Article (3) of the Copyright Law of Jordan clearly states that the law offers legal protection to any kind of original work in literature, art, and science regardless of the value or purpose of the work.
Copyright protection begins when a work is actually created and fixed in a tangible form. For the majority of cases the duration of a copyright is for the life of the copyright owner plus fifty years following his/her death. There are two categories of exceptions to the standard duration of life plus fifty years, however.
+) The author of a work only enjoys copyright protection for fifty years from the date the work was created in the following circumstances
- the author or rightsholder is a corporation, or other type of legal entity that grants some of the same rights as those that apply to natural persons
- the work is a cinema or television production
- the work is published for the first time after the death of the author
- the work is published under a pseudonym. In this case, if the work’s author reveals his/her identity within the protection period then the copyright duration is extended until 50 years following the author’s death.
+) Photographs and applied arts enjoy only a 25-year protection period, commencing on January 1 of their creation year.
You can see a list of Jordan IP firms here.