Following on from Friday's post on the third annual AAANM, the country reports were ably presented by Mohamed Eldib (North Africa), Brenda Matanga (Southern Africa), Dr Saudin Mwajake (East Africa) and Olusola Ogundimu (West Africa) and enabled a whistle-stop tour of Africa. Some of the developments and interesting points include:
- OAPI's accession to the Madrid Protocol has resulted in a substantial number of increased filings
- Nigeria is undergoing a substantial data capture program under the auspices of WIPO
- Nigeria's new cybercrime legislation has jail penalties, and regulates cybersquatting
- There are several high profile copyright cases pending before the courts in Nigeria involving COSON, FRCN, NNPC and NNPG. A recent copyright case involving MTN was settled.
- Lesotho is expecting copyright regulations to come into force soon
- Mozambique's new IP code came into force in December
- Malawi is expecting a new IP Policy
- South Africa's Copyright Amendment Bill and Makate knowhow case were highlighted
- Swaziland also has pending IP legislation to look out for
- Zambia's has new design legislation
- Egypt has mechanisms protecting against counterfeiting using smartphones
- The Creative and Cultural Industries Bill has provisions for promoting free trade of goods within the EAC, and for protecting IP
- Kenya has new legislation dealing with Plant Varieties - Seed & Plant Varieties Act CAP 326
- KECOBO is busy lobbying to strengthen copyright legislation with proposals for CMOs and copyright transfer verification processes for the transfer of copyright
- In Kenya an offensive trade mark includes a trade mark containing another
- Several recent copyright cases have been published in Kenya and there has been an interesting constitutional decision involving tobacco regulations
- Ethiopia's overhaul of its IP regime is 2012 is still receiving commentary
- Uganda has legislation on GIs and the new IPA 2014 is still under review
- A number of cases have come out of Rwanda and Uganda recently including one on image rights (Uganda)
- Tanzania's IPA includes provisions on knowhow and they are seeking ways to protect plant varieties
- Ghana is still considering draft legislation to implement the Madrid Protocol as well as a national IP policy and plant breeder protection
- There is no design protection in Ghana except through ARIPO
- The Gambia published a National IP Policy in April
- In June Liberia's IP Act was approved by the House of Representatives
Many of these developments have and will continue to be reported on by Afro-IP. Indeed, thanks to Brenda Matanga for crediting this blog in her research for her talk.
The day was followed by a cocktail evening and the second day was dedicated to meetings between attorneys in the firm and their country representatives. Really a worthwhile meeting this - well done Simon and Menzi for arranging.
Posted by Darren
Posted by Darren
