Patent 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 patent registration in Jordan.
Novelty grace period in Jordan
To be patentable in Jordan, an invention must meet the requirements of novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability.
Regarding novelty, if for some reason that makes the invention be published publicly, the applicant will still have a 12 months grace period starting from the first worldwide disclosure of the invention to file the patent application with that invention as the subject.
In this case, the patent application will still be considered valid.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Jordan
The necessary documents for patent registration in Jordan include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s and inventor’s names, addresses, citizenships, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
The procedure for patent registration in Jordan
To obtain a patent in Jordan, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Jordan.
After the submission, the patent application will undergo a formality examination to check if it complies with the requirements of the law.
After the successful formality examination, the substantive examination will be conducted.
At the moment, according to the law of Jordan, there is no special request for substantive examination.
However, the amendment of the current claims to match the European allowed claims will have some impacts on the substantive examinations.
Specifically, the substantive examination conducted by the European examiners for the European counterpart will be taken into consideration to decide on the patentability of the patent application.
In addition, the examinations of other countries such as the US & PCT will be taken into consideration for cases in which a European counterpart has not been filed.
Publication and opposition
Once the application is accepted, the patent application will be published publicly in the official gazette.
After publication, there will be a 3 months opposition period in which any third parties who feel like their rights are violated may file for the opposition of the patent application.
Validity and maintenance
In Jordan, a patent will be valid for 20 years starting from the filing date.
The prescribed annuity fees must be paid starting from the filing year, due at the time of registration.
The following maintenance fees are payable on each anniversary of the filing date.
If for some reason, the patentee forgets to pay the annuities, the IP Office of Jordan provides a grace period of 6 months for late payment of these annual maintenance fees with penalty fees.
You can see a list of Jordan IP firms here.