Number 42 in the transcontinental trek around Africa's official IP websites, conducted on behalf of Afro-IP by the assiduous Kingsley Egbuonu, is the Republic of Seychelles, an archipelago somewhere to the north-east of Madagascar. This is what Kingsley found:
Overview
Seychelles is a Contracting Party to a number of treaties on intellectual property, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. However, it is not a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
Copyright Office
• The Cultural Property and Copyright Unit / Seychelles Authors and Composers Society (SACS) is the competent office responsible for copyright and related rights in Seychelles.
• The office has no website.
Industrial Property Office
• The Registration Division (Department of Legal Affairs) is the competent office responsible for the administration of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in Seychelles.
• This office has no website.
Social Media Presence
None.
Intellectual Property update in Seychelles
• In 2010, it was reported that Seychelles was planning to review its IP legislation and, in the same year, it also signed an IP development plan and cooperation agreements with WIPO.
Conclusion
Seychelles maintains two good websites --one for general information and the other for the various public offices – but unfortunately Afro-IP did not find any dedicated to its IP office. Nevertheless, Afro-IP can see that Seychelles is committed and eager to embrace IP.
Afro-IP also notes with interest -- see last week’s post on UK technical assistance abroad -- that UK IP rights holders can extend their rights to Seychelles.
We look forward to Seychelles accession to the WTO and even better, a website for its IP office before the historic event.
Kingsley tweets as
@IPinAfrica
