The intellectual property commercialization office (IPCO), Jordan said it has registered 15 new patents for the kingdom's researchers in various domains and fields this year.

IPCO was established in 2010 as a nation, non-profit organization, at El Hassan Business Park.

The IPCO has received 75 research ideas, which have been assessed and evaluated via experts from the office itself. The process resulted in the registration of 15 ideas at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said a top official.

'The inventions were in several fields like Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, manufacturing medical devices, industrial equipment, irrigation systems, water purification, food preservations, in addition to protection from corrosion methods and others,' Khaleel Al-Najjar, director of IPCO, stated.

According to him, the increase in the numbers of registered patents by Jordanian institutions, in comparison with the previous decades, became rather obvious.

'For example, the patents registered via the Royal Scientific Society since its establishment in 1970, and until 2009 were 11 only. However, this number has increased to 23 patents by the end of 2010,' he added.

IPCO aims at stimulating researchers and inventors in Jordanian universities and research centers to invest in their ideas by turning them into commercial projects that they, investors, and the Jordanian economy would benefit from, explained Al-Najjar.

In addition to increasing investment opportunities for patents, IPCO currently attempts to establish a national database with the objectives of linking academic and research institutions in the industrial sector to help them develop their production lines, he stated.

'We seek, through the agreements and partnerships IPCO has recently secured, to increase local patents via offering the best possible services for inventors and their national, hosting institutions, basing our operations on the utmost standards for confidentiality,' he added.

IPCO, Al Najjar said, had signed 11 agreements with the European Union for several universities, research centers, industrial and service-based institutions in the Kingdom, a result of which 11 technology transfer offices were built in the Kingdom.-TradeArabia News Service