A SOCIO-LEGAL APPROACH TO GAUGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

This article seeks to provide a socio-legal framework for the examination of the attitudes of a section of the Jordanian public towards intellectual property rights (IPRs) using copyright protected software as an example. The article provides an overview of perceptions of IPRs within an Arabic and predominantly Muslim society and examines how such perceptions impact attitudes towards abiding with, and enforcing, IPRs. Through its analytical value and empirical research, the article fills a void in the availability of reliable empirical data in Jordan as part of the analysis to gauge the impact of intellectual property (IP) laws. A review of the literature indicates that the empirical research presented in this paper provides numerical data that has thus far been either unavailable or not reliably supported. This article concludes that traditional, cultural attitudes to property rights still exist, and while a uniform, strong religious stance against software infringement might have more influence over attitudes than the raising of awareness of intellectual property law, such a stance is unlikely given the non-hierarchal nature of Islamic theology.Jordan had limited IP law prior to the 1990s. While patents, trademarks, and copyright were acknowledged as distinct areas of jurisprudence in the Civil Code, the small role they played in practice reflected their generally minor economic roles. This all changed with the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession talks and Jordan’s growing openness to the global economy. With the adoption of IP laws that are compatible with the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Jordan’s IP laws have undergone radical developments and are considered to be in a TRIPS- plus stage in some areas. The integration of a TRIPs-plus IP regime into the policies and practices of countries with no previous tradition of providing private property rights, particularly where those countries have not had the opportunity of debating the issues over a number of years, raises a number of issues. One such key issue that is addressed in this article is the attitude of the public to this new wave of IPRs. Attitudes are important because they guide behavior, such as infringement activities. Clearly enforcement alone, i.e. a legal approach, will not solve the problems of infringement. What is required is a greater understanding of what influences people’s attitudes and behaviors towards IP, i.e. a socio-legal approach