ZIPO benefits from ARIPO's determination to embrace ICT

ZIPO benefits from ARIPO's determination to embrace ICT

By IPcommentator   Friday, January 03, 2014   No comments:

Last year this Leo was delighted to see ARIPO's revamped website. Now, we are about to see something phenomenal with the news that a project to further upgrade and modernise the ICT Infrastructure of the organisation has already begun. 

Excerpts from the news report reads: 

"The project cost is estimated to be 5.8 million USD and will be implemented in two years. The project will provide an Intellectual Property (IP) Automation System to support major activities of IP administration of the ARIPO Office, and those of its Member States, to develop online public services and the Automation of IP administration procedures and therefore allowing ARIPO to offer e-services, ICT equipment and transfer of the necessary knowledge, technology and know-how to the IP experts.

The project will also allow linkage between ARIPO and the IP Offices of its Member States. ZIPO was selected as a PILOT Partner in the first phase. Upon successful completion of the first phase the project will be extended to the remaining 17 countries Member States of ARIPO."

This Leo is not sure who is sponsoring this project; but, present at the launch ceremony were, among others, the Ambassador of the Republic of South Korea to Zimbabwe and representatives from WIPO and Korean IP office (KIPO). (Afro Leo would be interested to know if WIPO is partly funding this considering its increasing back seat role). Best guess: South Korea. Since Zimbabwe is ARIPO's headquarters, its IP office gladly benefits as well. Well, it is high time ZIPO had an opportunity to live the digital life. 

ARIPO, with Fernando Dos Santos at the helm, impresses yet again. 

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A review of African official IP websites: no. 25: Republic of Kenya

A review of African official IP websites: no. 25: Republic of Kenya

By Anonymous   Monday, December 31, 2012   1 comment:

As the year 2012 winds down in a few hours (though it is 1st January 2013 in Australia), this Leo is pleased to sign off the year with a country that has given us so much to talk about in the past 6 months or so. From switching off counterfeit mobile phones to discourse on protecting innovations in its mobile space, Kenya is indeed at the forefront of interesting intellectual property (IP) and IP-related developments in Africa. 

So, it is not surprising that this Leo finds Kenya's IP office (KIPI) still online and up-to-date with useful resources as we saw last year. He also discovers that both KIPI and the Kenyan copyright board (KECOBO) have remarkable social media presence (although KECOBO's website was down at the time of access). 

This Leo does not just note Kenya's ICT progress and innovation in isolation, he can foresee a vibrant and influential IP ecosystem or community (e.g. CIPIT) that may well complement the progress. Well done, Kenya.

Afro-IP wishes you, the reader, a prosperous, healthy and fulfilling 2013. Happy new year!

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Kenyan artists tackling music piracy using digital technology (mdundo), see here
Women are part of the technology and innovation boom in Kenya, see here

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A review of African official IP websites: no.16: Egypt

A review of African official IP websites: no.16: Egypt

By Anonymous   Monday, October 29, 2012   No comments:

You would think that a country which just emerged from a revolution would relent on something like intellectual property (IP); but that is not for Egypt as this little Leo found out. Last year, we were impressed by the online presence of its IP offices; on review, this blog is pleased to see that such effort has been maintained.

During this Leo's space trek, he came across two organisations working in the field of IP and ICT in Egypt: The Egyptian Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology (ECIPIT), and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). The ECIPIT is an NGO whose goal is to increase IP awareness in the ICT sector and how to use them for development; while the ITIDA supports the development of the software industry in various ways, as well as increasing social awareness of IP issues in Egypt.

This Leo was further impressed to learn that Adobe Systems launched an innovative pricing scheme for its products in an effort to ensure affordability and curb software piracy in Egypt. (Afro Leo knows that IP, patent in particular, deservedly gets the negative coverage, especially, when holders fail to innovate or unfairly stifle others)

Well, it appears Egypt has more to gain out of IP than some countries in Africa.

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Egypt and WIPO discuss boosting joint cooperation, see here

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Kenya: We've switched off your fake mobile, get a genuine one

Kenya: We've switched off your fake mobile, get a genuine one

By Anonymous   Thursday, October 11, 2012   2 comments:

Get ready for the big switch off

If you asked this little Leo last week or so about Kenya and mobile technology, you would get at least two responses: home to 26,135,115 mobile phone connections in Africa and M-Pesa, a renowned innovative concept in finance. As for intellectual property (IP) and Kenya,  it only takes a few minutes for anyone to find out on this blog, for example, here, here and here. This Leo adds to his IP current affairs knowledge with this news (better late than never) that the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has begun the fight against counterfeits within the telecommunications sector.

Switch off

Oh dear, they just did!

The widely anticipated switch off campaign by the CCK - in association with Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom, and Yu, supported by Nokia, Huawei and Samsung - has just come to past. According to this news report, it is estimated that around 1.5 million counterfeit handsets were switched off by the 30th of September deadline. Apparently, this campaign was particularly aimed at: tackling m-banking fraud; violence and protecting consumers from hazardous components. (Afro Leo wants to know how 3 million counterfeit mobile handsets made their way into Kenya in the first place. In respect of fighting crime, Afro Leo thought the CCK said that SIM registration was the solution?) 

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There is also the 'renowned' South Korea for bilateral technical assistance in ICT

There is also the 'renowned' South Korea for bilateral technical assistance in ICT

By Anonymous   Wednesday, August 22, 2012   No comments:

Out of the current OECD member countries, this Leo, and perhaps some of our readers, would quite easily name the United States of America and most countries in Europe as major sponsors of technical assistance programmes (bilateral or multilateral) in the African continent. But, this perception is beginning to change. The shift in our global political economy, increase in South-South co-operation and great strides by China, India (also here) and Brazil (also here and here) in the continent have contributed to this awareness. In essence, the competition for hearts and minds in the continent is on.

In the midst of all of these things is South Korea - arguably the world's most advanced in ICT and an 'excellent' example in terms of accessibility of government websites. This nation appears to be playing its part as well in an area where it is renowned. Readers may remember a reference to South Korea in the review of Angola regarding the construction of advanced technology centres (ATC). Although not too late, Afro Leo would like to thank Tim Katlic for drawing his attention to this news report that the construction of the technology data centre (TDC) was jointly funded by the Angolan and South Korean governments to the tune of USD 43.7 million. Readers should also note a contradicting report which puts the TDC project at USD30 million, but it is not certain whether 'ATC' and 'TDC' are ultimately the same. Nevertheless, the point is that we now know of South Korea's involvement in an ICT project in Angola.

Afro Leo is also aware that South Korea has supported or pledged to support ICT initiatives in countries such as South Africa and recently in Rwanda. Let's hope that its ICT assistance to these countries would trickle down to the work of their intellectual property (IP) offices. See A-Z of African official IP websites for Rwanda and Angola.

So, for those countries struggling to maintain or get their IP offices online, we now know which country is at the forefront of ICT and probably, best positioned to assist bilaterally.

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South Korea’s collaboration with the African Development Bank, see here 
South Korea to share experience with Africa, see here 

South Korean Don to support Rwanda on ICT see here

2012 Africa-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT in November 2012 see here

NEPAD e-Africa Commission see here and for Infrastructure Consortium for Africa see here

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