As of 12 December 2022, the National Service of Intellectual Property and Quality of São Tomé and Príncipe (SENAPIQ-STP) will use and accept the list of terms from the harmonised database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass.

Following the decision of SENAPIQ-STP to use the HDB, there are now 28 IP offices outside the EU that use and accept terms from this database.

The new incorporation of SENAPIQ-STP in TMclass brings the total number of participating national and regional IP offices, including ARIPO, OAPI, WIPO and the EUIPO, to 92.

On 17 January 2023, the CARIFORUM Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation (CarIPI) project organised an online workshop targeted at the 16 CARIFORUM IP offices to further discuss common practices in trade mark examination.

CarIPI has previously held several workshops aiming to provide guidance for trade mark applicants and examiners, and use their results to increase transparency, certainty and predictability of trade mark examination procedures in the Caribbean region.

On 24 January 2023, CarIPI organised a training session on “TM opposition proceedings and hearings” directed at intellectual property (IP) examiners from the CARIFORUM IP offices. The training is expected to strengthen the technical capacities and skills on TM examination, with particular focus on TM opposition proceedings for effective administration of IP systems at the national, regional and international levels.

On 28 and 29 November 2022, AfrIPI co-hosted its first on-site event in Algeria to support North African countries in the fight against counterfeiting, to promote intellectual property rights (IPRs) and to discuss their impact on the economy and the environment. The event took place at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Algiers.