Activities

AfrIPI– OVERALL AND ANNUAL WORK PLAN

AfrIPI has four main objectives:

  1. Promotion of Intellectual Property international agreements for a reinforced cooperation between EU and Africa;
  2. Strengthening of national and regional Intellectual Property institutions, networks, and tools, to increase a user- friendly and efficient protected IP system;
  3. Raising awareness of Intellectual Property Rights (including Geographical Indications) in the African society for Small and Medium- sized Enterprises (SMEs);
  4. Implementation of the work plan activities linked to the African Union (AU) Continental Strategy for Geographical Indications.

To achieve these results, the overall work plan sets a multiannual framework in terms of thematic and geographic priorities, complemented by plans to be developed each year containing detailed activities.

As a Pan-African Action targeting many countries and sub-regions, a geographical balance for activity implementation is sought. Activities are identified each year in close coordination with stakeholders, particularly AU Member States, ARIPO, OAPI, National IP Offices, the private sector and other organisations such as the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC).

AfrIPI Activity Clusters and Key Activities

   

2020

2021

No.

Description

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1

AfrIPI Launch Event

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Component I: Promote international agreements in the area of IPR & AfCFTA negotiations

2

Training on IP to Technical Working group AfCFTA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

Conference on Geographical Indications for Policy Makers for ARIPO Countries and Panel on Legal Framework

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

Support to the Kampala diplomatic conference on Voluntary Registration of Copyrights and Related Rights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

Regional workshop on the Arusha protocol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6

Regional workshop on Accession to the Banjul Protocol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7

GAP analysis on international agreements

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

Support the development of national framework for copyrights in Equatorial Guinea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9

Awareness-raising on the advantages of International Systems on IP [1] [2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

Legal and Technical Support to African Union Commission on IP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Component II: Strengthen national & regional IP institutions, networks, and tools

11

Webinar on Licensing Mechanisms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12

Consultative roundtable on Enforcement of IPR for North African countries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13

Workshop to exchange best practices and identify actions on Counterfeiting and Piracy in specific industry sectors (pharmaceuticals)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14

Development of OAPI Trade mark and Designs examination guidelines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

Development of common guidelines for ARIPO member states

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

Trademark and Industrial Designs Guidelines: Revision and Technical Working Group Participation (Egypt Twinning Project) [1] [2] [3] 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17

Workshop on international frameworks (the Hague) for examiners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

Patent examination training programme (ARIPO)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19

Patent examination training programme (OAPI)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

Support to the reform of the Angolan IP Legislation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21

Judges colloquium on enforcement – initiating the creation of a virtually accessible caselaw database

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22

Integration and implementation of IP Tools [1] [2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Component III: Strengthen the capacities of MSMEs / productive sector on IP

23

Support to the design and delivery of online trainings at ARIPO Master programme on IP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24

Support to IP Academies network [1] [2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

25

Expert support to the OAPI online Master's training programme on IP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

26

Create an African SMEs Learning tool

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Component IV: Support to AU Continental strategy for GIs

27

Technical support to the development of the legal framework for GIs [1] [2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28

Support the registration at national and/or EU level of African GIs [1] [2] [3] [4]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

29

Update and extend the GI Hub via updated/ additional content and enhanced technical functionalities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30

Creation of African Geographical Indications manual

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
01 - 31 Sep - Dec

Create an African SME learning tool

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are important drivers of growth in economies across Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for up to 90 % of all businesses in these markets.

01 - 31 Jul

AfrIPI project launch event

In order to increase visibility, this launch event will formally announce the start of the IPR Protection for Africa (AfrIPI) Project.

23 Jun

Workshop on Industrial Designs

The main focus of the activityis to create awareness on international best practices on designs that can help the IPOs gain efficiency. Additionally, the activity seeks to establish a roadmap of the implementations of those international best practices that should be envisaged in coming years.

28 Apr

Regional workshop on accession to the Banjul protocol

The Banjul Protocol provides a centralised trade mark registration procedure. Applications for trade mark registrations may be submitted either to the ARIPO Office or to the industrial property office of a member state; and must designate the member state(s) where registration is sought.

01 - 31 Apr - Dec

Awareness raising on the advantages of international systems on IP

In general, in Africa there is a low participation in international agreements in IP. This activity, focused on OAPI member states, will aim to promote accession to all international treaties that the gap analysis will present useful in facilitating international trade for these focus countries.

24 Mar
Online

Support to IP Academies network

The Nigerian and Ethiopian intellectual property offices (IPOs) held an online workshop with the EUIPO Academy on 24 March 2021, to exchange best practices on how to set up their own IP Academies.

01 - 31 Feb - Dec

GAP analysis on international agreements

International IPR agreements are key facilitators of international trade in the globalised economy. In many African countries the absence of a consistent and coherent national policy on intellectual property (IP), which is in line with those international IPR agreements, creates issues.

01 - 31 Jan - Dec

Legal and technical assistance to AU Commission on IP

The main objective of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is to create a single continental market for goods and services, with the free movement of people and investments, and thus pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African Custo

15 Dec
Online

AfrIPI and the African IPOs: creating awareness

The European Intellectual Property Office EUIPO (represented by the AfrIPI PMT) together with the European Commission (DG DEVCO) will organise an online seminar on the EU partnership with Africa on Intellectual Property Rights, in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

23 Nov
Mozambique

Support to GI registration Cabrito de Tete

The AfrIPI project supports the Cabrito de Tete geographical indication (Mozambique). It does so by providing technical and logistical assistance in the commercial testing.

17 - 19 Nov
Online

Patent examination training programme (ARIPO)

Inventors often favour the legal certainty of patents granted by patent systems with substantive examination. Due to a lack of resources and capacity, only a few countries in Africa conduct any form of substantive examination.

01 - 31 Nov - Dec

Training on IP to technical working group AfCFTA

As the AfrIPI project is designed to facilitate the ongoing negotiations (in particular Phase II, dealing with intellectual property rights) and later implementation of the AfCFTA, the project will provide technical assistance to the African Union and its member states in this regard.

01 - 31 Sep - Dec

AfrIPI feeding the GI Hub

Free access to information ensures transparency and promotes participation in public debate.

01 - 30 Sep

A new African GI manual coming soon

As stated in the continental GI strategy for Africa, the value of GIs needs to be highlighted through specifically supporting the effective progress of African geographical indications (GIs).

01 - 31 Sep - Dec

Integration and implementation of IP tools

Open access to the IP registers is expected to provide immediate tangible benefits to the users of the IP system in Africa, such as quality, reliability, and access to information.

01 - 31 Sep - Dec

Integration and implementation of IP tools

The activity aims to create awareness on the available IP tools and prepare the countries involved to integrate relevant EUIPN tools into their software. This integration process also includes the sharing of knowledge and experiences as well as technical hands-on sessions.