In September 2021, CarIPI hosted a series of webinars to raise awareness of the benefits of intellectual property protection in creating and sustaining successful and competitive SMEs in the region.

The training sessions were held over 3 days on 7, 23 and 30 September. They were based on IP business case studies developed by CarIPI. Private sector experts from the region shared their knowledge among peers.

From 28 to 30 July, CarIPI and WIPO jointly hosted a regional workshop on Capacity Building for the Strategic Use of IP by Producers Groups and Exporters of the Agro-Business Sector.

The workshop aimed to increase the capacity of export agencies, SMEs and origin-linked product producer groups to leverage IP tools to get best value for origin-linked agricultural products.

On 14th July, CarIPI organised a training session in Dutch on trade mark classification, for the Bureau of Intellectual Property of Suriname’s staff and the country’s relevant legal professionals. Knowledge on recent trends in the classification of goods and services for trade mark registration was shared during the session, including the most important features of Nice 2021. The main benefits and characteristics of the TMclass classification tool were also explained.

On 23 September, ARISE+ IPR organised an online public awareness seminar to showcase the benefits of the ASEAN GI registration in the ASEAN region using data and results collected from ASEAN and worldwide GIs. These benefits include the positive economic and socio-cultural impacts that GI registration may bring to GI stakeholders, as well as to trade growth and economic integration in the ASEAN region. The seminar  also highlighted the GI systems in each ASEAN Member State, in particular, the key steps needed to register and enforce GIs in each ASEAN country.

Following the ‘Impact Study on ASEAN GI registration in the ASEAN region’, which was conducted in 2020, ARISE+ IPR organised roundtable discussions for ASEAN IP offices on the findings of the study and a sharing session on GI examination targeting GI officials from the ASEAN IP offices.

In 2021, ARISE+ IPR organised a series of ‘Seminars on IP Services and Tools for Business’ for local and EU companies operating in the ASEAN Member States, especially SMEs and MSMEs. The IP offices of Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines provided an overview of their IP systems and introduced the IP tools, services and programmes available in their country. The participants had an opportunity to ask each IP office questions. The seminar for Cambodia took place on 28 July 2021. The seminar for Singapore took place on 6 September 2021.

As of 12 July 2021, the Trinidad and Tobago Intellectual Property Office (TTIPO) and the Commerce and Intellectual Property Office of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (CIPO-VC) will be included in TMclass.

The TTIPO will join with the alphabetical list of the Nice classification, while CIPO-VC will use and accept the list of terms from the harmonised database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass.

As of 5 July 2021, the Intellectual Property Office of Saint Kitts and Nevis (IPOSKN) will use and accept the list of terms from the harmonised database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass.

Following IPOSKN’s decision to use HDB there are now 14 IP offices outside the European Union (EU), which use and accept terms from this database.

AfrIPI is organising a workshop for ARIPO member states on the methodology used to achieve harmonisation in trade mark and design registration practices in Europe in the last decade. Will also provide a platform where to consider the benefits and to asses if there is a need to proceed in the future with harmonisation of common practices.

The European Union Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP) has organised an Enforcement Forum in June to encourage authorities, judges and private sector representatives to engage further in enforcing Intellectual Property rights (IPRs) and promote the use of best practices for the surveillance of IP infringements.