This Leo has spent the last few days enthralled by developments relating to South Africa's draft national IP policy as it pertains to pharmaceutical patents (see AfroLeo's posts here and here and Kingsley's post here). There is also a lot of commentary on Twitter (#pharmagate) and in the media ( for example, the Economist here and the Mail and Guardian here and here). All this Leo's going to say about this today, is that this contestation over IP policy shows just how important it is. It is thus very disappointing to find that many African states have not yet developed policies.
This week, we stop in the Republic of the Congo in search of an IP policy. The country's IP laws and texts are listed on WIPOLex here and based on the contents of this list, it does not yet have an IP policy.
This week, we stop in the Republic of the Congo in search of an IP policy. The country's IP laws and texts are listed on WIPOLex here and based on the contents of this list, it does not yet have an IP policy.
The country still does not have a national official IP webpage (see Kingsley's post here) but information about its IP system is available on the OAPI website.
