A: 

I don't have Oracle experience. However, since you haven't received any answers, I would dare to make the following suggestions. Try removing the enclosing parentheses from the line:

commandTextFormat += " (UPPER(COUNTRIES.NAME) LIKE '%' || :NAME || '%') ";

As shown below:

commandTextFormat += " UPPER(COUNTRIES.NAME) LIKE '%' || :NAME || '%' ";

Another suggestion; try enclosing the :NAME param inside the %

commandTextFormat += " UPPER(COUNTRIES.NAME) LIKE '%:NAME%' ";

I hope that helps.

ichiban
No, that was not the problem. The real problem was an error in the SelectCommand of the SqlDataSource... Pretty lame...
Bogdan M
+2  A: 

The problem was an error in the SelectCommand of the SqlDataSource... Pretty lame... If anyone would like to find out about it in full details, contact me. Other wise, I'll move on something else right now.

This question can be considered answered, from my point of view, and closed.

Thanks anyway.

Bogdan M