This blogger's attachment to European trade mark organisation MARQUES is well known and of some antiquity. He was therefore delighted to see that Mariëtte Du Plessis of the MARQUES
Trade Mark Law and Practice Team has provided an updated report on IP developments in Africa. According to the HouseMARQUES e-newsletter:
Africa has seen what has been described as a "remarkable growth" since the mid-1990s, with 10 of the world's 11 fastest-growing economies by 2020 expected to emerge from the continent.
This has prompted greater concern among investors about protecting and commercialising their intellectual property in Africa. In a paper published on the Trade Mark Team's website, Mariëtte Du Plessis of Adams & Adams reviews recent developments in Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, South Sudan, São Tomè & Príncipe, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Tunisia.
She also provides an update on ARIPO and OAPI, the latter of which has confirmed its intention to join the Madrid Protocol.
If you click through to the Team's web page, you will find that the report is accessible to MARQUES members only. However, if you want sight of it you may find it worth contacting Mariëtte on a personal basis and asking there is any chance that you might get to see it -- particularly if you are with a firm or company that is contemplating joining MARQUES and would like to see the quality of its work.
