TW's Global Intellectual Property Index (GIPI)

The Global Intellectual Property Index (GIPI), launched by European law firm Taylor Wessing, presents a statistical comparison to date of how jurisdictions are viewed in terms of ‘IP competitiveness’. Jurisdictions are rated as places in which to obtain, exploit, enforce and attack the three main types of IP: trademarks, patents and copyright.

According to the report, it is most useful to consider the results of the GIPI in terms of five groupings or ‘tiers’ of IP competitiveness. These groupings are shown below. The only African country to appear in the tiers is South Africa, in tier 3. For more information on key findings of the index click here:

The Tiers of IP Competitiveness

Tier 1
UK, USA, Germany

Tier 2
Netherlands, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, France

Tier 3
Israel, Japan, Spain, South Africa, South Korea

Tier 4
Poland, Dubai (UAE), Italy, Mexico

Tier 5
India, Brazil, Russia, China

Counterfeit and fake drugs threaten to promote malaria again

Grim news from Uganda's New Vision website: a recent survey has revealed that more than a third of the anti-malarial medicines sold in Kampala are either counterfeit or are not strong enough to cure the disease. This raises the risk of malaria becoming resistant to the new generation of medicines that have replaced chloroquine. In this study, research assistants posing as ordinary customers bought various anti-malarials from randomly selected pharmacies in Kampala. Similar tests, performed in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania, showed that Kenya appeared to have the highest percentage of inefficient drugs (38%), followed by Uganda and Ghana (35%), Rwanda (33%), Tanzania and Nigeria (32%).

The drugs sampled were sulfadoxine-pyromethamine (commonly known as fansidar), amodiaqine (commonly known as camaquin), mefloquine, artesunate, artemether, dihydro-artemisinin and artemether-lumefantrine (commonly known as Coartem). Overall 48% of the sub-standard drugs were made in Africa, while 32% were made in Asia. Contrary to popular belief that European drugs are of high standards, the researchers found that 24% of the sub-standard drugs were of European origin.

Meet the Bloggers

Afro-IP is among the 15 blogs at the "Meet the Bloggers" reception in Berlin next Monday evening, which coincides with the International Trademark Association's Annual Meeting in the same city. For details of the reception at the top of Olswang's office at One Potsdamer Platz -- which you are welcome to attend -- click here. For blographies of all 15 intellectual property blogs, provided by Managing Intellectual Property magazine, click here.

Africa Warms to Trademarks

At the risk of being the last blog to link to an article which has found some traction and orginally penned by this blogger for a column in World Trademark Review, here goes:

In a column orginally entitled Trademark Warming in Africa, this blogger suggests that recent developments mean that trademark owners should make plans both to develop their brands' presence and to protect their rights in (and from) Africa. Recent signs of a trademark warming in Africa include:

* African governments are becoming increasingly outspoken on the need to protect intellectual property;

* Counterfeiting is rising significantly, showing both a market for brands and a need for proper brand protection;

* Africa's largest inward investment deal was signed last year and is widely recognised as a vote of confidence in the continent;

* The continent's European filings at OHIM were at their highest in 2007 relative to previous years, indicating relative growth; and

* The continent will host FIFA's World Cup Football event, a traditional showcase for multinational brands, in 2010.

Bearing in mind that the African continent is the second most populous in the world, and hence a significant potential market, Africa's call for attention on the trademark manager's budget spreadsheet should, in this blogger's view, be getting louder. The full article can be located here, here, here and here (thanks for the links)

More on the AIDS/Access debate: Pharma Power

It seems as if it is patent/drugs month on Afro-IP which has just come across this article, linked on AllAfrica, by Patrick Bond, on a recent extract from William Gumede's book "Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC" published by Zed Books (http://zedbooks.co.uk). Bond states that there is a need to go beyond the individual reasons ("the oft cited peculiarities of the President himself") and look at the structural forces that have informed Mbeki's embattled AIDS policy, such as international and domestic financial markets, pharmaceutical manufacturers and a large reserve army of labour:

"The second structural reason is the residual power of pharmaceutical manufacturers to defend their rights to 'intellectual property', i.e. monopoly patents on life-saving medicines. This pressure did not end in April 2001 when the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association withdrew their notorious lawsuit against the South African Medicines Act of 1997. That Act allows for parallel import or local production, via 'compulsory licences', of generic substitutes for brand-name antiretroviral medicines. Big Pharma's power was felt in the debate over essential drugs for public health emergencies at the November 2001 Doha World Trade Organisation summit, and ever since."

Bond seems to support Ayodele's view that compulsory licensing is ineffective but for different reasons. Readers may recall that Ayodele recently wrote (based mainly on his experiences in Nigeria and reported on Afro-IP here) that the focus on IPRs as the main contributing cause to lack of access to life saving drugs in Africa is mis-directed... "that even if medicine were available for free, as it often is in poor nations, dysfunctional institutions and personnel ensure that the needy can't access it. Despite unprecedented quantities of monetary aid to the ministries of health of many African countries, health systems on the continent have languished." Bond's focus, by contrast, seems to be on the residual power of big pharma to protect their IPRs, despite compulsory licensing provisions aimed at increasing access to drugs.

* Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. The article is an extract from his book 'Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa'.

Patent challenge based on traditional knowledge

Activists have challenged a European patent on a method of extracting an anti-bronchitis drug from plants, says the Daily Dispatch. They want to prove that the method is based on ancient African knowledge. The dispute, which is before the European Patent Office in Munich, involves the southern African plant umckaloabo ( Pelargonium sidoides). Dr Willmar Schwabe of Karlsruhe, Germany, has patented a factory process to obtain the extract. Michael Frein, of the German Lutheran Church Development Service, said the process was effectively the same as the traditional one used in the Eastern Cape town of Alice and in Lesotho to make an anti-bronchitis and anti-tuberculosis remedy. Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety said the company had no right to such a patent. But Traugott Ullrich, a spokesperson for the Schwabe company, said umckaloabo had been in use in Europe for more than 100 years, and the company's extraction process was completely unlike the traditional one.

Challenges to IP rights enforcement in Nigeria

Sade Laniyan of Jackson Etti & Edu writing for World Trademark Report on an IP session entitled "Enforcement of IP Rights in a Globalized Economy" held on March 27 2008 during the Third Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association summarises that there are a number of challenges to IP rights enforcement in Nigeria such as:



* a lack of relevant case law;

* insufficient numbers of interpreters (where the infringers are non-English speakers);

* the limited effect of interlocutory orders;

* the lack of public awareness (about counterfeiting and IP rights);

* the fact that all operations at the registry are performed manually; and

* the lack of public confidence in the various mechanisms for the enforcement of IP rights.

Afro-IP hopes to do its part to help overcome some of the challenges by faciliting comment and access to information about IP enforcement in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

Mauritius, US continue TIFA talks

Officials from Mauritius and the US met at the end of April to discuss implementation of the United States-Mauritius Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), according to a piece in AllAfrica. This was the second meeting under the TIFA’s bilateral Council on Trade and Investment (TIFA Council), which monitors trade and investment relations, identifies opportunities for expanding trade and investment and provides a forum for addressing challenges in the two countries’ trade ties. The TIFA Council was set up to facilitate a dialogue and help to increase commercial and investment opportunities by identifying and working to remove impediments to trade and investment flows between the United States and Mauritius.

During the TIFA Council meeting, officials explored common objectives – including cooperation in the World Trade Organization, implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, trade capacity building and technical assistance, intellectual property protection, export diversification, trade promotion, and development – and examined opportunities for a more comprehensive trade and investment relationship.

Total two-way trade between Mauritius and the United States was valued at $237 million in 2007, with US imports of $188 million and US exports of $50 million.

Kenya-Ghana games collaboration

Writing for Computerworld Kenya, Rebecca Wanjiku ("Kenya-Ghana collaboration seeks to revive game production") describes the collaboration between Wesley Kiriinya, Kenya's top video game producer, and Eyram Tawia (Topssoft Computer Services, Ghana) in the production of world-class games. Kiriinya (technical director at Sinc-studios) produced Kenya's first video game, "Adventures of Nyangi", which is based on African folklore, a feature he intends to present to the world stage. Citing the scarcity of video games with themes based on African traditions, Kiriinya said the world needs to understand Africa beyond the natural and human-made tragedies that make the news.

Collaborations of this type face challenges from insufficient funding and the lack of well-equipped colleges to train programmers and software developers. Some countries, like Kenya, do not have clearly stipulated guidelines for software development, and Kiriinya adds that many developers there don't realize they need software licences. The trade mark and patenting laws also are not well-developed, and some processes take months before completion, which discourages some developers who may want to protect their work.

Free download of "Adventures of Nyangi" available here

OMO seizure not whiter than white

Thanks to colleague Msawenkosi Gaxo (Bowman Gilfillan), Afro-IP has been alerted to the recent decision of The Minister of Trade and Industry and Another v EL Enterprises and Another (15383/2005) [2008] ZAGPHC 130 (6 May 2008). In this decision Judge Poswa, of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court, set aside an application for confirmation of a seizure conducted on behalf of Unilever PLC on the basis that the Dept Trade & Industry had failed to serve the application papers (for confirmation of the seizure) on the respondents within the period of ten days as required, after seizing certain goods without a warrant. The decision turned on the meaning of the phrase “brought within 10 court days” in section 5(4)(a) of the Counterfeits Goods Act. EL Enterprise's (a graphic design company) legal team argued that the phrase meant that the papers (for confirmation a seizure without a warrant) had to be served within the 10 day period. The Dept of Trade & Industry's attorneys submitted that the Act does not require an application to be issued and served and so it was irrelevant that the papers were served after the ten day period. After analysing the cases, Judge Poswa dismissed the application for confirmation with costs. Msawenkosi's summary of the case will be published in Afro-IP shortly.

Knowledge, of the traditional kind, for SA

South Africa's DTI has now published a draft amendment to IP legislation to incorporate traditional knowledge protection. The announcement states:
that the law of trade marks/geographical indications may be able to provide protection of certain names/features associated with traditional knowledge e.g. Rooibos and Honey bush tea;
that a National Council consisting of experts on traditional knowledge must advise the Minister and the Registrar of intellectual property on traditional intellectual property (TIP) rights;
that communities may form business enterprises such as collecting societies in order to administer their traditional intellectual property, as well as commercializing such TIP;
that such business enterprises may enter into licensing agreements (commercialization of TIP) with third parties;
that other rights in the copyright regime should preferably also be subjected to "collective management of copyright regime".
The notice and Bill can be found on the DTI website at:
http://www.thedti.gov.za/ccrd/ipbills.htm
Any comments must be submitted by 15 June 2008, so get writing soon!