AFRIPI

Universities, research and development (R&D) institutions and other innovation associations increasingly leverage their intellectual property (IP) internationally, as they diversify their contributions beyond just imparting knowledge to their students. In contrast, African universities generally have a low level of awareness, including in the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) member states. Specifically, on how to harness and use IP from research and other academic activities for their benefit.

The Nigeria Intellectual Property (IP) Office has a vast quantity of paper-based trade marks that need to be scanned to migrate the data to the back office system (IPAS). As a result, it has been selected as the pilot office to give support for this digitalisation process. The first steps were taken during Annual Work Plan 1, and these efforts continued under Annual Work Plan 2.

Digitalising and modernising IP administrations of African countries will make the systems more cost effective, reliable and responsive to (especially small and micro) businesses’ needs.

Following the first online meeting of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) sub-group of the ad hoc working group on Geographical Indications (GIs), which took place on 16 June 2022, the second meeting met at the ARIPO Secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 26 and 27 July. The two-day in person meeting was attended by representatives of the countries in the sub-working group namely: Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe being the host country. The representative of ZIPO also attended

In July 2022, AfrIPI participated in the international conference ‘Worldwide perspectives on Geographical Indications: An International Conference for Researchers, Policy Makers and Practitioners’, organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), contributing to the dedicated discussions on recent practices and research between the academic world, practitioners’ network, and the policy sphere from all over the world.

On 12 to 14 October 2022, the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI) and AfrIPI held a constitutive General Assembly of the Association of Judges in Dakar, Senegal.

The symposium aimed at adopting the statutes of the association of judges, electing the bureau of the association, addressing the ways in which the jurisprudential database works, and laying the foundations for the activities of the association. At the end of the symposium, the statutes of the association were adopted, and a bureau elected.

The objectives of the symposium are to:

AfrIPI, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) held the Module B curriculum training session of the ARIPO Patent Examination Training (ARPET) programme from 11 to 15 July 2022. The 5-day course took place at Hotel Verde in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

From 6 to 13 July 2022, AfrIPI invited seven Egyptian judges to the EUIPO for a study visit. The visit intended to provide members of the Egyptian Council of State with a better understanding of the EUIPO’s working processes and to amend the draft Egyptian trade mark and design rules. This was accomplished through meetings with specific departments, as well as unique workshops to enhance and clarify understanding of the guidelines methodology.

From Tuesday 21 June to Thursday 23 June 2022, the 4th Export Fair organised by Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) took place once again in the Brussels Expo event complex.

The Africa IP SME Helpdesk participated in the event – which was attended by over 820 participants – along with the European Commission’s International IP Helpdesks for China, India, Latin America and south-east Asia.

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and AfrIPI are hosted a Workshop on Integration and Implementation of Intellectual Property (IP) Tools for the ARIPO Member States on 21 and 22 June 2022. The workshop took place at the ARIPO Secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe.

In line with international and European best practices and in support of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, AfrIPI aims to create, protect, utilise, administer and enforce intellectual property rights across Africa. To achieve this, AfrIPI organised two Study visits in 2022.