Geographical%20Indications%20in%20Jordan

1
Geographical Indicationsin Jordan

• 1- Justifications
• 2- current situation of GIs
• 3- building the system of GIs
• Sulaiman Alrkaibat,
• Director of Trade Agreements Unit, MoA

2
Challenges that facing Agr. Sector in Jordan
(MoA, small farmers and Rural areas)

• Legislative, social, trade and economics,
  institutional and practical challenges

3
Liberalizing the Trade (WTO)

• Higher competition
• Lower tariffs
• The current marketing system dont distinguish
  between agri. Products according to distinguish
  characteristics (method of production, place of
  production, who are the producers)

4
Changes in local production system

• big firms / high investment
• high yield varieties
• the impact on small producers
• their need to transition period to cope
• the opportunity cost
• immigration from rural areas to urban

5
Required Role from MoA

• Strengthening the farmers organization
• Creation of proper legislative frame work
• Inducing the proper changes in agricultural
  policies
• Adopting new innovations in agriculture with
  benefit to small farmers such as
• organic products
• fair Trade
• GIs
• As to maximize the value of production of small
  farmers

6
In Jordan

• Organic farming JICA
• Fair Trade NGOs
• GIs FDA

7
Current situation GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
LAWLAW NO. 8 FOR THE YEAR 2000

• ARTICLE 2
• Minister Minister of Industry and Trade.
• Geographical Indication Any indication which
  identifies a good as originating in the territory
  of a specific country, or a region or locality of
  that territory, where a given quality, reputation
  or other characteristic of the good is
  essentially attributable to its origin

8

• ARTICLE 3
• A- Any person is prohibited from the following
• 1. The use of any means in the designation or
  presentation of a good that indicates that the
  good in question originates in a geographical
  area other than the true place of origin, in a
  manner which misleads the public as to the
  geographical origin of the good.
• 3. The use of a geographical indication which,
  although literally true, falsely represents to
  the public that the goods originate in other than
  the true place of origin

9

• ARTICLE 4
• A- 2 trademark from the Register may also be
  filed without restriction to the period related
  thereto, which is determined in the Trademarks
  Law in force.
• ARTICLE 7
• The following acts shall not be considered in
  violation of the provisions of this Law
• A 1. Acquiring through use, in good faith, a
  trademark, which is identical or similar to a
  geographical indication before the provisions of
  this Law came into force or before the
  geographical indication is accorded protection in
  its country of origin.

10

• - Using a geographical indication of any other
  country, by any means, for which the indication
  is identical to the common Arabic term for such
  goods or services
• in the Kingdom
• ARTICLE 9
• The Council of Ministers may issue regulations
  necessary to implement the provisions of this Law.

11
building the system of GIs

• Assessment mission from French Development Agency
  (FDA) was in Jordan as to advice in establishing
  a system of GIs in Jordan
• Their main findings are
• In principle, this law prohibits the
  establishment of trademarks mentioning geographic
  sites
• a number of Jordanian officials believe that
  geographic indications should be regarded as
  collective marks and should be treated as such

12

• the Abou Ghazaleh law firm), taken the initiative
  to propose a new law on GIs which is much more
  comprehensive than the ordinance of 2000
• draft the law based on
• The TRIPS Agreement,
• The International Lisbon Agreement, and
• The Paris Agreements
• (37 articles instead of 10).
• a specific bureau for registering GIs in the
  Ministry Industry and Trade.

13

• GIs would be considered a quality sign certified
  by the Jordan Institute for Standards and
  Metrology (JISM).
• Products would have to conform to European
  standards
• GIs protected for 10 years, can be renewed.
  Every 10 years,
• the product would be checked to ensure that it
  is conforming to the standards.
• The draft law would be very clear on the
  procedure for filing the registration and the
  system for penalized protection.
• The draft law is due to be presented to the
  Ministry of Industry and Trade by the end of the
  year.

14
The content of the List of RequirementsA classic
list of requirements for geographical indications
should include the following

• Name of the product including a mention of the
  geographical indication,
• Demarcation of the area concerned, defined as the
  surface area that includes all the communities or
  parts of the communities that are included in
  that area,

15

• Factors that justify the existing link between
  the quality and the characteristics of the
  product along with the geographical location or
  with the geographical origin,
• Description of the product including the raw
  materials and the main physical, chemical or
  organic characteristics,
• Factors that prove that the product originates
  from the geographic area in question

16

• Description of how this product is obtained, its
  expiry date, its local address, service address
  and headquarters address,
• References of the institution if the requester's
  choice regarding control issues is handled by a
  certifying institution

17

• Specific requirements for the labelling of that
  product,
• Details of all those who were involved in the
  production and/or manufacturing and/or packaging
  of the product from the point of origin onwards
  in order to facilitate control issues, and
• An inspection plan that can be followed by the
  concerned authorities or organisations

18
Establishing The National Commission for
Geographical Indications

• A national commission for geographical
  indications should be established. It would
  gather concerned administrations and
  professionals as well as experts

19

• Its function
• to review the cases for geographical indications
  in view of
• list of requirements and current texts
• it would present its view to the authorities
  responsible for the registration of GIs. If this
  advice is unfavourable,
• the geographical indicator will not be
  registered
• In these cases, the requesters will have the
  right to appeal
• If advice is favourable, the GIs will be
  published in the relevant official
• . All those involved will then have the right to
  object within a certain period of time.
• Once this time period is over or once the appeal
  has been accepted,
• the GIs will be considered as definitely
  recognised and will be registered

20

• Rule of some Compositions of the commission
• The Ministry of Industry and Trade and IPPD We
  propose that the MoIT should be the Jordanian
  authority for GI, through the IPPD, and that a GI
  department be created within the collective marks
  register.
• To avoid modifying the law on trademarks and the
  law on geographical indications.
• in view of its competencies in matters of
  expertise, controls and accreditation, the
  participation of JISM in the commission is vital

21

• The Ministry of Agriculture
• This Ministry needs to play an important role
  when it comes to expertise in handling cases.,
  because of its competence in issues related to
  the TRIPS Agreement and in implementing various
  standards and norms as a result of Jordan joining
  the WTO.
• The contribution of the Olive Bureau is required
  to launch the pilot geographical indications
  project on olive oil

22

• The Ministry of Justice to review the draft law
  of GIs.
• the Ministry of Planning will decide if they wish
  to participate in this commission.
• The Royal Court could be represented in this
  commission.
• The Ministry of Environment should participate,
  in our view, in the commission as geographic
  indications must, by their very concept,
  contribute to conserving the environment

23

• The Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA)
  must participate in the commission in view of its
  responsibility of providing export certificates.
  If not, then it should at least be consulted as
  an expert when cases are decided.
• NCARTT, public research institution, should
  participate in the commission as a scientific
  expert

24
Protecting GI

• The terms of the ordinance can be completed by
  adding the following regulations
• The geographical indications as well as their
  geographic representations or logos are for
  collective use. They remain the property of the
  State through the organization that has processed
  their registration

25
(No Transcript)