Kenyan IP update

Coulson Harney which is a member of the Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group have published their monthly IP newsletter packed with news on intellectual property in Kenya and abroad. Some nuggets from John Syekei's group this month include that:

• members of the Kenyan Boys Choir successfully cancelled a registration for KENYA BOYS CHOIR in the name of Joseph Inzai on the basis that he had no legal claim to the trade mark
• the High Court reached a controversial decision in Nonny Gathoni Njenga v Catherine Masitsa, Standard Group and Bauhaus ltd effectively extending copyright protection to TV formats, and in particular format shifting
• the Nairobi High Court upheld the mandate of the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) to conduct investigations
• the ACA is now chaired by Polycarp Igathe
• that the Weetabix trade mark matter has now been settled out of court
• Time Warner attempted to enforce a Madrid Protocol registration against a local sweet manufacturer using the Ben 10 trade mark, which ultimately lead to an out of court settlement
• British America Tobacco has attempted stop the implementation of certain plain paper tobacco regulations in Kenya
• there has been a study on patent, utility model and industrial design activity from 1990 to 2014 released in March 2015 by the Scinnovent Centre which highlighted certain "bottlenecks" to obtaining IP rights in Kenya, including that lack of responses by examiners at KIPI, failure to submit required fees, withdrawals by applicants and poor drafting of applications.
• Ruma Lodge had sued the Music Copyright Society of Kenya for malicious prosecution, but lost

You can read it in full here.