Update: Brexit implications for Africa

Update: Brexit implications for Africa

By Darren Olivier   Tuesday, January 29, 2019   No comments:

Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

The UKIPO has been helpful in providing regular updates on what would happen to intellectual property rights of those with interests in the UK post Brexit, in the event of a no-deal. The latest update published recently sets out the various rights and explains what would happen to each:

1. - Continued protection of registered trade marks and designs in the UK
2. - Continued protection of unregistered Community designs
3. - Correspondence addresses and confidentiality for UK trade marks and designs
4. 
   

The implications are, generally, that existing EU rights would remain in force and that provisions for a separate right covering the UK would be created, with minimal administrative burden. Despite these assurances though, many EU rights holders have already seen fit to re-file or at least reconsider their portfolio as it applies to the UK. The uptick in national UK national filings shows the trend and African rights holders would do well to consider the same approach.

The debate and uncertainty over Brexit is tedious yet remains captivating and crucially important for anyone with trade, business or personal interests in Great Britain. Most countries and many citizens of Africa fall into that category, and even on the continent's most southern tip it is also a potentially very emotive topic.  Only the bold or mischievous raise the topic at dinner tables. It is treated with the same trepidation as religion, abortion and politics for the topic has the same capacity to interrogate fundamentals.

When Great Britain catches a cold, Africa gets pneumonia, as the saying goes. GB is one of Africa's most important trading partners. Any slight, let alone momentous (even if temporary), change to the economic climate in GB affects Africa.

This truth underlines the concerns raised by South Africa's trade minister Rob Davies in a recent BusinessReport news article in which he warns of the potential devastating impact a no-deal Brexit would have on the South African economy. Highlighting the wine industry which produces 40% of its export for the UK market, he explains that the European Partnership Agreement reached with Europe in 2016 saw South Africa's duty free quota to Europe increase from 48 to 110 million litres. The implication, it appears, is that this progress in trade for South Africa would be jeopardised. This is despite, British High Commissioner Nigel Casey's assurances in late November last year.

In the same article Dawie Roodt and Mike Schussler, both leading economists, warn that if Brexit is disruptive, even a small contraction in the British economy would be hard felt in South Africa, citing exchange rate fluctuations and trade implications. However, Schussler admits admits that the effect if difficult to predict, and impossible to influence.

For earlier posts and commentary on Brexit implications for IP owners in Africa, click Afro-IP posts here and here.

Posted by Darren Olivier

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DTI's Africa IP Forum - the draft agenda

DTI's Africa IP Forum - the draft agenda

By Darren Olivier   Thursday, February 14, 2013   3 comments:

Just received from the conference organisers.

For background on Forum see yesterday's post here. Comments welcome.

DRAFT AGENDA

Africa IP Forum

Theme

Intellectual Property and Economic Growth and Development in Africa

Pretoria, South Africa

Gallagher Convention Centre (SICC)

February 25- 27, 2013

Day 1 – 25 February 2013

4pm – 6pm : Registration

6pm : Welcoming Cocktail

DAY 2 – 26 February 2013

8h00 – 9h00                Registration

9h00-9h45                  Opening Ceremony

                                    Gallagher Convention Centre

Introduction of Minister : DG :Lionel October

                                    Welcome : Honorable Minister Dr Rob Davies

                                    Formal opening : DDG WIPO : Geoffrey Onyeama

Session Moderator: to be decided

9h45-11h00     Plenary 1

Promoting a Development Oriented IP system                  

Description: Developing an IP system appropriate to the level of development, to meet national development objectives

Panel:

Ø  Suggested speakers(30 min paper presentation)

·         Professor Carlos Correa, Special Advisor, South Centre - presenter

·       Johanna Von Braun, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape Town, South Africa – panel member

·         Dr. Padmashree Gehl, UNCTAD, Economic Affairs Officer, Division for Africa and the LDCs – panel member

·         Geoffrey Onyeama – DDG, Development Sector, WIPO – panel member

11h00-11h30      Coffee/Tea Break

11h30-13h00      Break out sessions

                       

Track 1: Achieving Development Objectives, Building technological capacity in Africa

Description: Developing IP system that meets development objectives, challenges and issues pertaining to technology transfer,

Moderator: to be decided

Suggested speakers(20 minutes each)

Sisule Musungu, President of IQsensato and Managing Director of IQsensato Consulting, Kenya - presenter

Sangeeta Shashikant, Legal Advisor, Third World Network  - presenter

Pedro Roffe, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Geneva – panel member

Prof Jonathan Youngleson , Head, NIPMO – panel member

Track 2: WIPO Development Agenda: What it means for Africa 

Description: Origins of the Development Agenda, Implementation of Development Agenda, Impact on Africa

Moderator : to be decided

Mohamad Gad, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt – panel member

Boumediene Mahi, Permanent Mission of Algeria, Coordinator of Development Agenda Group, Geneva - Presenter

Mr Herman Ntchatcho, Senior Director, Development Sector, Regional Bureau for Africa, WIPO - Presenter

Dr. Carolyn Deere-Birkbeck, Senior Researcher at the Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford – panel member

                       

Track 3: Developmental challenges of Least Developed Countries

Description: This session will examine IP issues that specifically affect least developed countries.

 Moderator: to be decided

Makiese Augusto, Permanent Mission of Angola, (Coordinator Least Developed Countries in WTO in Geneva) - presenter

Ermias Biadgleng, Legal Officer, UNCTAD – panel member

Moses Mulumba, Executive Director of Center for Health & Human Rights (CEHURD), Uganda - presenter

Suerie Moon: Associate Research Fellow, Sustainability Science Program, the Center for International Development, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Instructor and Special Advisor to the Dean, Harvard School of Public Health – panel member

13h00-14h00   Plenary Lunch

  

14h00-15h15     Plenary 2

                       

Access to affordable medicines, Incentivizing Local Production of Generic Medicines in Africa        

Description: This plenary will explore issues pertaining to access to affordable medicines and local production of generic medicines, such as use of patent flexibilities to promote access to medicines, and incentivize local production.

                                               

Panel:

Moderator :to be decided

Suggested speakers(30 minutes)

Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health – panel member

Tenu Avafia, Policy Specialist, Trade and TRIPS, UNDP New York - presenter

Martin Khor, Executive Director, South Centre  - panel member

15h15-15h45   Coffee/tea break

15h45-17h00   Break out sessions

                       

Track 1: Benefits of Substantive examination of Patents versus the depository system

Moderator: To be decided

Suggested speakers(30 miniutes)

Rep of Kenya - Presenter

Rep of Brazil – panel member

Rep of India – panel member

Rep of OAPI – panel member

Rep of ARIPO – panel member

Rep of WIPO  - Presenter

Track 2:  Promoting local production of generic medicines in Africa

Moderator: to be decided

Suggested Speakers

Prof. Sudip Chaudhuri, Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. - presenter

Baguma George, Director / Chief Commercial Officer Quality Chemical Industries Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. – panel member

Frank Schmiedchen, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany.  – panel member

Christopher Spenneman, Legal Expert, 
Intellectual Property Unit
, Division on Investment and Enterprise (DIAE), UNCTAD. – panel member

      

Track 3:  Facilitating research and development in diseases that predominantly affect Africa

Moderator : to be decided

Suggested Speakers

Bernard Pecoul, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDI),  - panel member

Dr. John H. Amuasi, Acting Head of Research and Development Unit, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana – presenter

Peter Folb from the South African Medical Research Council (and ex-South African regulatory authority) – panel member

Zakir Thomas, Project Director, Open Source Drug Discovery Initiative, India – panel member

7pm – Gala Dinner

Keynote address : Honorable Minister Aaron Motsoaledi/

Chairperson: Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Mrs Fubbs

END OF DAY 1

DAY 2

9h00-10h.30  Plenary 3: Bridging the knowledge gap in Africa: Role of Copyright Exceptions and Limitations

Description: The role of copyright exceptions and limitations to foster access, competition, creativity and innovation

                       

Panel:

Moderator: to be decided

Suggested Speakers(30 minutes)

Dr. Marisella Ouma, Executive Director, Kenya Copyright Board, Kenya – panel member

Dick Kawooya, Lead Researcher for the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2k) project from 2007 to 2010, Senior Lecturer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) - presenter

Prof. Nagla Rizk, Director, Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D), American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt – panel member

10h30-11h00   Coffee/Tea Break

11h00-12h30       Break out sessions

                       

Track 1: Exceptions and limitations for libraries, education and research

Moderator: to be decided

Suggested Speakers(20 minutes)

Denise Nicholson, Copyright Services Librarian, University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa - presenter

Teresa Hackett, EIFL-IP Programme Manager, UK – panel member

Hala Essalmawi, Principal Attorney and Intellectual Property Rights Officer, Library of Alexandria, Egypt - presenter

Steven Mutula, Associative Professor and Head of the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana – panel member

Track 2:  Exceptions and limitations for people with disabilities in the digital age

Moderator : to be decided

Suggested Speakers(20 miniutes)

Jace Nair, National Executive Director of the South Africa National Council of the Blind (SANCB)  - presenter

Martin Kieti, Kenya Union of the Blind.  – panel member

Jamie Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International  - panel member

Ruth Okediji, Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School, US

WIPO rep to be confirmed - presenter

                      

12h30-13h30 Lunch Break

13h30-15h00              Break out sessions

                       

Track 1: Biopiracy: Theft of African knowledge and culture

Suggested Speakers(20 minutes)

Edward Hammond, Expert on Biopiracy - presenter

Maigari Buba, Africa Group coordinator, WTO TRIPS Council  - presenter

Rachel Wynberg, Biowatch, South Africa – panel member

Francois Meienberg, Berne Declaration, Switzerland  - panel member

Track 2: Public interest and Development issues in IP enforcement

Suggested Speakers

Moses Mulumba, Center for Health, Human Rights & Development, Uganda - presenter

Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Expression and Opinion  - panel member

Elizabeth Tamale, Assistant Commissioner at Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry, Uganda – panel member

Mboi Misati, Kenya Intellectual Property Institute – presenter

Nirmalya Syam, Programme Officer, South Centre – panel member

Track 3: Achieving Food Security, challenges and issues in Africa

Moderator: to be decided

Suggested Speakers

Mamadou GOÏTA, IRPAD/Afrique, Mali – panel member

Peter Munyi, Chief Legal Officer, African Insect Science for Food and Health (ICIPE), Kenya – panel member

Andrew Mushita, Community Technology Development Trust, Zimbabwe - presenter

Bell Batta Torheim, Norwegian Development Fund,  - panel member

Lim Li Ching, Advisor, Genok. – presenter

15h00-15h30               Coffee/Tea Break

15h30-17h00 Plenary 4 and closing: Challenges & Issues in protecting Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources & Traditional Cultural Expression of Africa

                  

Panel:

Moderator: to be decided

Suggested Speakers(20 minutes)

Panel: 

Suggested speakers

Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food – panel member

Professor Carlos Correa, Special Advisor, South Centre – panel member

Chee Yoke Ling, Director, Third World Network - presenter

Wend Wendland, WIPO, Head: Traditional knowledge - presenter

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RSA launches its "Africa IP Forum"

RSA launches its "Africa IP Forum"

By Darren Olivier   Wednesday, February 13, 2013   2 comments:

Afro Leo received a flyer by email from the South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) promoting its Africa IP Forum that is to be held over two days at the end of this month in Johannesburg. The agenda* is heavily slanted in favour of developmentalists. You can register here but there is a limit of 500 attendees, so hurry.

You may remember the failed attempt by US based CLDP to sponsor and arrange its Africa IP Forum in 2012 in conjunction with the DTI. Their agenda received significant criticism on grounds that it  was too focused on what may broadly be termed "western interests" (you can follow the debate on this blog by searching "Africa IP Forum").

As a result the forum was stillborn, provoking consternation. It was the first time a much needed pan African conference was to be arranged on African soil to address issues and promote the interests of IP on the continent. But CLDP appeared to underestimate local critics. Some had understood that DTI had agreed with the criticism although the DTI did not comment at the time.

The CLDP changed its tack and made this known to the IP community at INTA in May last year. They teamed up with Kenya's Anti-Counterfeit Agency (a strange bedfellow given the anti-enforcement sentiment highlighted by the previous effort) and stated that they would help launch a new Africa IP Forum, planning for which would continue at a Tanzania meeting a few months later. 

With RSA's DTI now launching its own Africa IP Forum it seems obvious where they stood on CLDP's original attempt. Assuming that CLDP is not somehow involved behind the scenes,  it is ironic then that the DTI have used the same name, descriptive as it may be, for a concept that appears to have been nurtured by CLDP. Indirectly, it would illustrate exactly why the CLDP (and/ or its funders) may have been so keen on an enforcement agenda for its Africa IP forum in the first place

The DTI, with its pro development agenda, has also disclosed the position of RSA's government toward IP in general, in case there was any doubt. This position has shifted over the past decade from one that supported IP in a form that exists in developed countries to another that is considerably less keen to pander to big users of the IP system and more keen to promote exceptions and limitations. The recent frustrated views of Harms and Dean who sat on the advisory committee to the Government or were otherwise influential for many years, give us an another indication of just how strong and steadfast the position of RSA's Government appears to be.

Meanwhile, CLDP is not giving up. Their Upcoming Event's tab describes a gathering in Tanzania in March 2013 of a nascent African Intellectual Property Group:

"an Africa wide umbrella organization of African IP officials, industry, and IP stakeholders - to bring East, West, and Southern African IP officials and private sector together to determine practical and innovative solutions (both national and regional) to the challenges posed by counterfeiting and piracy (AL - sounds like an enforcement agenda), as well as effective utilization of  IP rights to foster innovation and economic growth in Africa".

The race is on.

*the Africa IP Forum agenda can be obtained from bongi@organisers.co.za or by clicking on the "agenda" link which has been updated since this post was published.

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