A to Z of African official IP websites no.28: Libya

Kingsley Egbuonu's 28th visit to an African jurisdiction takes him to Libya, where the highly-publicised civil war and change of government has inevitably resulted in the country facing higher priorities than getting its intellectual property offices online. This is what he says:

Overview

Libya is a Contracting Party to a number of treaties on intellectual property including: the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

Copyright Office

• The Intellectual Property Division (National Bureau for Research and Development) is the competent office responsible for copyright and related rights in Libya. 

• Currently, this office has no web presence.

Industrial Property Office

• The Intellectual Property Division (National Bureau for Research and Development) is the competent office responsible for the administration of intellectual property rights in Libya. 

• Currently, this office has no web presence.

Social Media Presence

None

Intellectual Property Update in Libya

The industrial property offices in Libya were not damaged during the recent civil war, but they are all expected to be fully functional soon (http://bit.ly/tuTGAt).

Until a government is elected and a new constitution adopted, the Constitutional Declaration currently issued by the Transitional National Council ensures intellectual property rights. Article 8 of the Declaration states that: “… The State shall also guarantee the right of work, education, medical care, and social security, the right of intellectual and private property …”

Comment

Afro-IP wishes the new government of Libya the best of luck in bringing the country together. Hopefully, it will do better on IP than its predecessor.

Kingsley tweets as @IPinAfrica