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 Customs Union.

Under its Annual Work Plan 3, ARISE+ IPR organised a workshop on ‘Madrid Protocol - A Route to Global Branding’. It was held on 6 April 2021, in coordination with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) and with the support of the Delegation of the European Union in Malaysia. The workshop targeted Malaysian entrepreneurs, aiming to raise awareness on the Madrid Protocol and promote the use of the system among local stakeholders when filing trade marks abroad.

The National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) has published a practice paper on the criteria for assessing the disclosure of designs on the internet and to provide recommendations thereof.

On 25 March 2021, the EUIPO Executive Director, Mr Christian Archambeau, participated in a successful 5th EU-ASEAN Heads of IP Offices Meeting. The meeting was organised under the ARISE+ IPR Project to strengthen the relations between the Heads of ASEAN IP Offices and provide them with a platform for sharing best practices, and to formulate new areas of EU-ASEAN collaboration and points of convergence that take into account the individual IP Offices’ priority areas.

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. This will be done via training of state actors (training sessions and regional conferences) on the advantages and flexibilities of treaties for commercial development. The sessions and conferences will provide evidence-based data and good practice examples for African policymakers.

Effective protection of copyright and related rights ensures the contribution of the cultural sector to the economy through the emergence and development of the cultural industry. In this mechanism, the role of collective management is essential. Equatorial Guinea, an OAPI member state, has not yet implemented collective management of these rights. The country has two legal instruments, dating back from the 19th century, which have fallen into disuse, creating a de facto legal vacuum.

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. Therefore, AfrIPI will provide technical assistance to interested African countries in preparing for their accession to the international agreements on IP, and benefit from the opportunities offered by such instruments in terms of protection of IP rights.

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. The Protocol is not limited to ARIPO member states, as it is also open to other African countries who can benefit from its advantages on accession.

Plant variety protection (or plant breeders’ rights (PBRs)) is an IPR granted to farmers or breeders of new plant varieties. The adoption of the Arusha protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Arusha protocol) in 2015 created a harmonised regional legal mechanism for the protection of plant breeders’ rights (PBRs) in the ARIPO member states. This protocol has been aligned with the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants of 1991 (UPOV 1991). Nevertheless, only a limited number of countries have ratified the Arusha protocol so far.

The voluntary registration of copyrights and related rights regulations provide means of presumption as to the authorship/ ownership of rights, offering a proof of ownership document. ARIPO’s strategy on copyrights led to the drafting of a legal framework on voluntary registration of copyrights and related rights for adoption at a diplomatic conference in Kampala, Uganda. The conference will be a valuable platform to address key stakeholders (policymakers) in the region and invite discussion of current challenges and best practices, followed by the adoption of this legal framework.