This little Leo was pleased to see intellectual property (IP) issues on the African continent in kick it up a notch on this blog last week and wishes to see more of such proactive from the IP community in Africa. (Afro Leo says, "come on, let's match the IPKat").
The doom and gloom begins this week with the usual concern about the perceived neglect of the national IP offices in most African countries. Apart from this news update that Djibouti's new IP law has come into effect and that its IP office is now operational, Djibouti is as we left it in 2011.
This Leo was not even aware of WIPO's ICT equipment supply to Djibouti's IP Office back in 2010 - a project which recorded 10 participants compared to 0 for these two here and here in 2012. (Afro Leo thinks that these could just be PCs, hard drives, etc; ultimately, if a country has little or no internet infrastructure/connectivity (see here and here) what is the point having a PC?). It is indeed poignant that some of these African countries have IP laws at international minimum standards - if not above - but yet, do not operate an IP office to commensurate with such a regime.
Is it actually a lack of will or resources; or both?
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For a bit more about Djibouti's new IP law, see here
For a bit more about Djibouti's new IP law, see here
