Back on
terra firma again after his trip across the water to Madagascar, Afro-IP's e-emissary Kingsley Egbuonu finds himself in Malawi, the 30th country he has visited in his search (often fruitless!) for official intellectual property office websites. This is what he found there:
Overview
Malawi is a Contracting Party to a number of treaties on intellectual property (IP) including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It is also a member state of ARIPO.
Copyright Office
• The Copyright Society of Malawi (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture) is the competent office responsible for copyright and related rights in Malawi.
• The website for this office is www.cosoma.org but it is not functional.
Industrial Property Office
• The Department of the Registrar General (Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs) is the competent office responsible for the administration of intellectual property rights in Malawi.
• This office has no website.
Social Media Presence
None.
Intellectual Property update in Malawi
No recent update.
Conclusion
Like some members in ARIPO, Malawi’s IP offices do not have an online presence. However, Afro IP hopes that Malawi can make effective use of its links [for example, the Scottish Law Commission at http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/news/malawi-link/] to advance IP as a tool for development.
Kingsley tweets at
@IPinAfrica
