ARIPO & EUIPO shake hands as Marrakesh comes into force

Best mates: Campinos & Dos Santos

ARIPO, the intergovernmental organisation for co-operation amongst African states in intellectual property matters has, this week, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Intellectual Property Office (previously OHIM). It aims to achieve the following:

• renewing relationships between the two organisations that commenced formally in 1999
• licensing ARIPO data for use in EUIPO's free to view trade mark, design and patent search platforms, and for statistical information
• dedication to a process of harmonisation
• co-operation on training (including secondment opportunities) with annual meetings to discuss major pending issues
• extension of IT, automation and modernisation schemes
• co-operating on research development and enforcement initiatives

The feature that caught Afro Leo's eye is the possibility of EUIPO exporting and sharing the EUIPO developed "similarity tool" and Afro Leo had dedicated a separate post to that.

ARIPO also celebrated the coming of age of the Marrakesh Treaty on 30 September 2016 (thanks for reminding us!) but somewhat lamenting that only Mali had ratified the Treaty after nine African States had originally signed it. ARIPO urges other African states within its membership to come on board.

For more on Marrakesh including a tribute from Stevie Wonder click here.