The thirty-fourth destination of Afro-IP's Kingsley Egbuonu is the Kingdom of Morocco, up on the top left-hand corner of the continent where visitors can surf both the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. But what might the online surfer in search of official IP sites discover? Kingsley reports:
Overview
Morocco 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.
Copyright Office
• The Copyright Office of Morocco (BMDA) is the competent office responsible for copyright and related rights in Morocco.
• The website for this office, here, is in French but there is an option if you want to translate it into English or Arabic.
Industrial Property Office
• The Moroccan Industrial and Commercial Property Office (OMPIC) is the competent office responsible for the administration of intellectual property rights in Morocco.
• The website for this office, here, is in French and, as with the BMDA above, there are English and Arabic options.
Social Media Presence
None found
Intellectual Property update in Morocco
Morocco was among the first eight countries which signed the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on 1 October 2011 in Japan.
Conclusion
The current state of affairs is that Morocco recognises IP as a proven tool that is able to contribute and support its socio-economic and cultural development. Consequently, its government set out a five-point framework (“the Vision 2010 plan”) towards an IP strategy which would then be incorporated in its national development agenda (see WIPO Magazine, here). This was conducted in two phases with the support of various international partners.
Afro-IP is pleased to learn that the revamped Moroccan IP office websites were as a result of the Vision 2010 plan. Taking into account the lack of social media and further room for improvement on websites, Morocco has demonstrated real commitment to IP - -at least, with a commendable online presence.
As it is just over a year now, Afro-IP would be glad to hear from anyone who knows about the Vision 2010 plan and its further successes in Morocco.
Kingsley tweets as
@IPinAfrica
