The Second Annual Moot Court Competition Concludes in Jordan

The second annual Moot Court Competition, the first competition of its kind to be held in the Middle East at a university level, concluded on May 28 at the Samir Shamma Auditorium at the Faculty of Law/ University of Jordan.

“I consider this experiment very successful, encouraging and useful for law students. The participating students play the roles of the plaintiff and defendant lawyers which will benefit them in the practical life after their graduation,” Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University, Dr. Kamel Al Saeed.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in September 2004 between the Faculty of Law at the University of Jordan and the Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society (AIPMAS), member of the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP), to organize the Moot Court Competition on IP topics among law students at the Jordanian universities.

After the obvious success which this competition has achieved in its first cycle in 2005, the Dean revealed that it will be held on annual basis to provide law students with the required knowledge they need when they handle real IP cases.

The contest aims at enhancing concepts of Intellectual Property on the local and regional fronts through motivating students to read and search more about IP issues and to increase their awareness about the role which IP plays in the economy.

This year’s pleadings were presented by the participating students before a panel presided by Judge Nehad Al Husban.

The competition’s Coordinating Committee consisted of: Dean Dr. Al Saeed, Dean’s Deputy Dr. Qais Mahaftha, and ASIP’s Manager Mu'tasem Dmour. While, the Executive Committee consisted of the Ministry of Justice representative Al Hosban, the Faculty’s Representative Dr. Basem Molham, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s representative Nesreen Abu-Samaha.

The contest’s case concentrated on a company called “Take away” which is specialized in the domain of preparing meals for diabetes patients and owns the trademark “Be Healthy”. This trademark is being registered in twenty countries but not in Jordan. The company opens a branch in Jordan to prepare its trademarked meals “Be Healthy.”  Meanwhile, another company starts preparing such meals making all the required promotion also under the trademark “Be Healthy.”

“This competition has provided the participating students with the legal and practical experience which will definitely benefit them in the future,” Al Husban stated. She noted that such practical experience will open endless job opportunities for the students after their graduation.

The Judge highly commended this initiative taken by the Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society to promote awareness concerning IP issues. “I believe that IP issues are very much vital these days, though their number is very much limited except for trademarks. However, I support the calls to establish a specialized court for IP in the Kingdom,” she pointed out.

Member of the Coordinating Committee Dr. Melhem noted that the Committee received 12 applications from the students and four teams were selected. “Those who have reached to the final stage of the court were selected because of the best performance, legal preparation and their capabilities to defend the case,” he stated.

The winners in this competition are to be rewarded with cash and in-kind prizes presented by the Head of the Society Talal Abu-Ghazaleh. These include a paid training contract for four months for each of the six students and JD 600 for the winning team.