– Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Law No. 15 of 2000, effective since May 2, 2000.

Unfair competition: the following acts are considered as acts of unfair competition: (1) acts, which by nature cause confusion with the establishment of a competitor and the products and industrial or commercial activity of same; (2) false claims in trade practice, which may lead to the loss of trust; (3) data or claims whose use in trade may confuse the public in respect of the nature of the products, method of manufacturing, characteristics, quantity or validity of same; (4) any practice, which may harm the reputation of a product or which may cause confusion in respect to its outer appearance or presentation or which may deceive the public upon the announcement of the price of the product or the manner of calculation. The same will be applied if the unfair competition is related to a trademark used in Jordan, whether it is registered or not, and resulted in misleading the public.

Litigation procedures: (1) each aggrieved party may claim compensation for any damages caused by unfair competition; (2) an aggrieved party upon filing a civil lawsuit related to unfair competition or during the examining of such case, may submit an application to the competent court accompanied with a bank or monetary guarantee acceptable by the court to realize any of the following procedures: (a) stop the competition act; (b) precautionary seizure of the related materials and products, wherever found; (c) maintenance of related evidence. In all cases, the court may seek the assistance of an expert.

Penalties: the court may decide to confiscate the products causing the unfair competition, along with the materials and tools used to prepare them.

Trade secrets: means information which is characterized with: (1) being a secret because it is usually unknown in its final form, or its components are precise, or is usually difficult to acquire in the field of persons usually dealing with this kind of information; (2) having commercial value due to its secrecy; (3) the proprietor of the right is taking reasonable measures in order to maintain its secrecy in its current conditions. The proprietor may prohibit any person from abusing a trade secret protected according to this law. The following acts are considered as contrary to honest commercial practice: (1) breach of contracts; (2) breach of secrecy of confidential information or encouragement to breach same; (3) acquisition of a trade secret from another party by a person who knows that the acquisition thereof by that party was a result of violation of honest commercial practice.

Litigation procedures: same as for “unfair competition” above.

Data protection: any data related to pharmaceuticals or chemical agricultural products that have been submitted upon the request of any official authority will be protected. The data may include secret tests or any data, which has been reached as a result of considerable efforts in order to approve the marketing of pharmaceuticals or chemical agricultural products, which contain new chemical substances.

Duration: the subject data are protected for five years.

License contracts and intellectual property rights: any provision or conditions in any contract that cause the restriction of competition, which is included in a license contract related to any intellectual property rights, which may have negative effect on trade and hinder the transfer dissemination of technology, shall be considered as null and void.