The trademark applications must be filed with the Trademark registration section of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply of the Kingdom of Jordan. The process of registering a trademark in Jordan takes between 12 to 16 months in normal cases.
- Time Frame for search:
Conduct a search to prevent a rejection in later stages is available in Jordan. The purpose of conducting a search is to check if there are similar or identical marks that might be conflicting with any mark subject to registration. Official Trademark Search is limited to trademark name and class only. No official search can be done based on the applicant’s name.
The time frame for conducting a search is 3 days to get the result from the trademark office. As a result, the TMO will issue an official search report stating whether they found any similar/identical trademarks in their database or not. if yes, a copy of the similar/identical trademark details will be provided as well. On that said, search is not one of the major steps for the entire registration process as we can proceed directly with filing the application.
- Time frame for filing:
After the filing application is being prepared with all the required details such as Applicant’s name, address, and nationality, and trademark details, we can proceed with depositing the application at the trademark office and settling the official filing fees. After settling the said fees, the trademark office will assign a filing number and date for the application. The Time frame for filing the application is 1 -2 working days.
- Examination time frame:
Once the application is filed the trademark office started the examination phase to check if it complies with all the formality requirements and if it is similar / identical to a previously filed / registered mark in Jordan. If the trademark complies to the formality requirements, then the trademark will be accepted. The publication fees should be settled within 30 days from the official notification date to publish the mark in the official gazette.
If the trademark office issued an office action or rejection against the application instead of acceptance, then the timeframe to appeal or comply with the examiner’s request is 30 days. The examiner should re-examine the application and issue the acceptance by 30 days.
The time frame from filing to examination is taking 7-12 months to be completed.
- Timeframe to publish an accepted trademark:
After settling the publication fees the trademark office takes around 2-5 months to publish the trademark in the official gazette for 90 days to give the right for any interested party to oppose the registration.
- Registration to Certificate Issuance:
Timeframe of settling the registration fees is 30 days from End of publication. After, settling the registration fees, the trademark office will issue the registration certificate within 2-3 weeks.
- Term of Protection:
A trademark registration in Jordan is valid for 10 years starting from the filing date or priority date in case there is a priority claim.
- Renewal:
Owners have 1 year to renew their marks after they expired as a grace period. However, it’s better to filing the renewal application within the last year of the valid protection period. The Timeframe to submit the renewal application, settle the renewal and publication fees is 1 -3 working days. The renewal certificate will be issued within 1 week from the date of settlement of fees and sometimes the certificate issued at the same date of settling the fees.
VII. Cancellation Action:
The registration of a trademark can be cancelled within 3 years from filing because of non-use of the trademark according to article 22 of the trademark law which stipulates: “whoever is interested may apply to the registrar for the cancellation of any trademark registered in the name of a third party if its registrant has not actually used it continuously for a period of three years preceding the application unless the owner of the Trademark proves that nonuse has been due to special circumstances in the trade or to justifiable reasons which prevented use.”
As a conclusion, the trademark registration process in Jordan is taking around 12-16 months to be completed however, it’s worth to mention that Jordan’s trademark office doesn’t dealing with the deadlines strictly except for oppositions till this day. On the other hand, its better as applicants to abide by the allowed periods in each stage of the process mentioned above to complete the formalities to expedite the process and to be on the safe side in case trademark office decided to deal with that strictly.
Nour Hammoud
IP expert Holds Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the Lebanese International University. She’s a Professional membership at International Trademark Association (INTA) and INTA Anti-counterfeiting Committee.
Yara Bou Maroun
Legal Expert with a Master’s degree from the Lebanese university and a DEA degree from la Sagesse University. She is a specialist in International business law with an emphasis on Intellectual property law.
