This activity aims to support the ARIPO ad hoc working group on GIs in moving forward to create an enabling legal and institutional framework in accordance with international best practices. In 2023, the objective is to follow up on the work done by the ARIPO Member States working group in 2022.
Related activity from Annual Work Plan 2022:
In 2021, at least six geographical indications (GIs) were registered regionally in the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) region, with other applications pending.
While there is a common understanding about the importance of GIs, some countries have not tracked this evolution. Thus, mapping the existing GIs in some of those countries, like Chad, would help build momentum at the national level.
The objectives of this activity are to:
AfrIPI provides on demand technical assistance for examiners for trade marks, designs, patents, plant breeder’s rights through online training workshops on substantive examination practices, to meet this challenge, and to engage Member States to raise awareness on the protection of new plant varieties.
This activity has the objective to:
In accordance with the Patent Examination Training Program, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Africa (AfrIPI) Project worked together to provide OAPI examiners with a comprehensive competency-based training program through a combination of on-site and virtual classroom training, online courses, and on-the-job coaching.
OAPI received draft patent examination guidelines to be revised and adopted by the OAPI-EUIPO-EPO working group.
The AfCFTA Secretariat, the body in charge of the negotiations of the IPRs Protocol, is a new addition to the African Union system. The legal and technical support ranges from drafting the IPR Protocol, to preparing technical documents for the negotiations, to providing demand driven specific legal and technical advice to the Secretariat and the negotiators, and will be critical for the successful conduct and conclusion of the negotiations on the IPRs Protocol.
The main objectives of this activity include:
Outcome 2 of the action plan of the Continental Strategy on Geographical Indications aims to create an enabling environment at the legal and institutional level for Geographical Indications (GIs) in African countries.
While an efficient system of protection is available at the level of the OAPI countries, the mandatory creation of National Committees for GIs tasked with the examination of the GI applications, is not always enforced in all OAPI Member State’s jurisdictions.
After the entry into force of Annex X of the Bangui Agreement on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants on 20 November 2020, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), accredited four examination centres, called ‘CENTRE D’EXAMENS DHS’, in Cameroon, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso, to conduct technical examinations to test for Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) prior to the registration of new plant varieties in the OAPI Member States.
The objectives of this activity are to:
The Continental Strategy for geographical indications (GIs) in Africa (2018-2023) highlights the importance of the development and registration of GI products as pilots and drivers for rural and sustainable development to provide learning and demonstrative effects.
On 21 and 22 February 2023, AfrIPI took part in the first EU-Kenya Business Forum in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Nigeria Intellectual Property (IP) Office still has a vast quantity of paper-based trade marks, which must be scanned to migrate the data to the back-office system (IPAS). This IP Office has been selected as the pilot office to give support to in this digitalisation process. The first steps were taken during AWP1 and AWP2, which will now be continued in AWP3.
The objective of the activity is to scan and capture the first sets of data for active trade marks in the Nigeria IP Office, which are currently paper-based.