Scholarship Opportunity for Particular Countries

Scholarship Opportunity for Particular Countries

By Afro Ng'ombe   Friday, November 14, 2014   No comments:

Via Sean Flynn and the Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest comes an announcement particularly relevant for our readers and friends in Congo DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Libya, Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan*.  The Civil Society Leadership Awards (CSLA) is currently accepting applications to earn a scholarship for a fully-funded Master’s degree, including an LLM in IP.

From the CSLA announcement,

The purpose of the Program is to directly assist future leaders in countries where civil society is challenged by a deficit of democratic practice in local governance and social development. Awards are available for MA degree study in the following fields at universities participating in the CSLA program.

There’s a full list of participating universities and programs available on the application page at https://civilsocietyleadershipawards.submittable.com/submit/33850.  One school that is definitely offering an LLM in IP is Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C.  More info about their program here. This Little Leo didn’t find other schools offering exactly this degree on her brief glance/click-through, so interested cubs should check into individual schools if for more information on a particular institution.

For full details on the scholarship, see here (note that this is a google drive hosted document).  Applications are due 15 December 2014 for study beginning in summer 2015.

*There are also non-African countries eligible; see the civil society leadership link above for a full list.

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A review of African official IP websites: no.47 & 48: Sudan & Swaziland

A review of African official IP websites: no.47 & 48: Sudan & Swaziland

By IPcommentator   Monday, June 03, 2013   No comments:

Last year, this Leo was pleased to see a website for the intellectual property office in Sudan. On review, the website is nowhere to be found online. A country which initially impressed us now disappoints. Over to Swaziland. Like we saw last year, the ARIPO Member State is yet to establish a website for its IP office. 

This Leo is still hopeful that, one day, both Sudan and Swaziland would each maintain a website for their respective IP offices.

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Thursday bits and bobs

Thursday bits and bobs

By Darren Olivier   Thursday, August 09, 2012   No comments:

This day is Women's Day in South Africa. It is a day to commemorate the march of women in 1956 to petition against oppressive legislation but is also now much more than that. The entire country takes a break to recognise the achievements of women in society. It also means that you will get an "out of office" from most local IP practitioners, so be prepared.

Over on the Afro-IP Linkedin Group Sunny Lin posted a question on how to start and administrative action in Sudan. It seems that a well known Chinese brand is being counterfeited in that country. This will be of special interest to those who are following the development of Chinese "formal" IP and also evidence of a reversal from China as the stereotypical "copiers" to China as "creators and protectors of IP", and Africa from the "the dumping ground for Chinese counterfeit goods" to counterfeiters themselves. Of course, we have known this for a while.

Turning stateside, WSJ MarketWatch carries a press release from Silicon Valley based Sable Network advertising a unique service which seeks to garner RSA ex-pat skills to mentor and assist entrepreneurs, product innovators and universities with new venture growth, technology transfer and foreign market access. Afro-IP notices that there is much talk about intellectual property in the release but no noticeable expert to provide the skills, so we have written in to see how we can help.



 Stickers for the clever

Afro Leo wonders whether anyone leaving the country to become the pool of talent that Sable Network wishes to use, will require exchange control approval before they can board the plane - after all they have know-how, know-how is IP and IP is capital according to the changes in the excon regs.

Check in Desk: Anything sharp with your luggage?

Passenger: No, just me.

Check in Desk: Over there please, special scales for valuation and then excess intellect payment there. Next.

A US based company called Knowledge Tree hit the venture capital headlines recently by raising $4.75 million in funding for its cloud based document management business. It gets a mention on this blog because of the company's African origin and also because it seems whilst ideas and innovation are in no short supply here, in order to get real lift off businesses may need to move to countries like the US. Comments welcome.

That said, a recent INSEAD Innovation report states that "The dynamics of global innovation are changing as a result of the activities of emerging economies". According to The Global Innovation Index 2012  strong performances in innovation were highlighted by several emerging economies, including Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Senegal, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In Africa, Mauritius scores top marks but one questions whether this is simply because of their favourable tax regime for registering/holding IP than strictly as a result of innovation. More info here.

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Registering a trade mark in Sudan? Then read on ...

Registering a trade mark in Sudan? Then read on ...

By Jeremy   Wednesday, July 11, 2012   No comments:

You don't need to go to extremes
like this in order to get your
trade mark registered on Sudan

Afro Leo has been prowling around Sudan, and has picked up the scent of Trade Mark Circular No. 1 for 2012, which the Registrar of Trade Marks has issued addressed to local trade mark agents and brand owners.  They are requested to observe the following conditions for the purpose of organization of work and procedures:

1. If the Registrar of the opinion that the filed application is incomplete, he will request the applicant to complete or correct the application within one month, otherwise the application will be considered abandoned.

2. After expiry of opposition term (maximum 8 months), the applicant must complete registration procedure and issuance of registration certificate within 2 months, otherwise the application will be considered abandoned.

3. Application for renewal of a trade mark registration should be filed within six months before expiry of registration term with a grace period of six months after expiry date for late renewal with penalty. The Registrar has allowed a six months from 8 July 2012 for renewal of trade marks that have already expired and not renewed on time, otherwise the registrations will be considered lapsed.

4. The Power of Attorney stamped by the corporate seal of the company and notarized by Notary Public will be acceptable without legalization up to the Sudanese Consulate. However, the Extract from the Commercial Register and the Certificate of Incorporation are still required to be legalized up to the Sudanese Consulate.

The Registrar has also issued an internal circular to the staff of the Trade Mark Office, telling them to accept applications only when the notarized Power of Attorney and the legalized Certificate of Incorporation are submitted along with the application.

So now you know what you have to do!

Source: news bulletin from SMAS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Khartoum, Sudan

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A to Z of African official IP websites no.47: Sudan

A to Z of African official IP websites no.47: Sudan

By Jeremy   Monday, May 07, 2012   No comments:

It's now week 47 and Kingsley Egbuonu's marathon trek round Africa's many and varied nations, in search of official intellectual property websites, has now taken him across the border from South Sudan to the nation which formerly governed that territory, Sudan itself. Kingsley reports thus:

Overview

Sudan is a Contracting Party to a number of treaties on intellectual property including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Sudan is also an ARIPO Member State.

Copyright Office

• The Federal Council for Literary and Artistic Works (Ministry of Culture and Youth and Sports) is the competent office responsible for copyright and related rights in Sudan. 

• This office currently has no website.

Industrial Property Office

• The Office of the Registrar General of Sudan (Ministry of Justice) is the competent office responsible for the administration of intellectual property rights in Sudan. 

• The website for this office is www.ipsudan.gov.sd and it is in Arabic.

Social Media Presence

None found.

Intellectual Property update in Sudan

Afro-IP has reported on various developments of practical significance in recent times: see here, here, here and here

Conclusion

Similarly to South Sudan, Sudan has its own problems -- but there is a website for its intellectual property office. Albeit not up-to-date, the website has a lot of relevant information worthy of praise; they include: legislations, forms, fees and even a few case laws.

Afro-IP also got to learn of the excellent work done by the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) the www.arcsudan.sd towards ensuring that the future and sustainability of the agricultural sector in Sudan – which employs a significant number of its population despite its oil revenues.

By creating and encouraging a favourable environment for intellectual property rights, through its IP office, the Sudanese government will also be assisting with the work of the ARC.

Kingsley tweets as @IPinAfrica

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Fewer Orphans in Sudan?

Fewer Orphans in Sudan?

By Afro Ng'ombe   Wednesday, April 25, 2012   No comments:

A few weeks ago, this Little Leo had the opportunity to attend a conference on orphan works sponsored by a local law school. It was a good conference in many ways and participants represented a diverse array of copyright perspectives.  As discussions about defining and solving the orphan works problem progressed, two themes took center stage: “here’s what Europe’s been doing,” “here’s what the US has been doing.” 

The solution-seekers should look a little broader in their quest for ideas. One place to start is the Sudanese Copyright Act.

There are lots of different aspects to what has been dubbed “the orphan works problem.” And there is not a consensus on exactly what fits into that basket and what’s left strewn on the table waiting for the next basket.  One of the situations that falls into some iterations of this basket is those works where the author is known and known to be deceased but the current rightsholder is unknown. The Sudanese Copyright Act has a provision that deals specifically with this issue.

Authors can dispose of their economic copyrights as they see fit via their will. This includes prohibiting publication or setting a future publication date for unpublished works.  However, “where the author dies intestate or leaves no heir the Minister may order that the work shall be in public domain.” (Art. 20(2).)

Wills provide a written record that is generally recorded at a probate office or other such registry. This makes tracking down the new owner a bit easier. Passing copyright ownership to others via testamentary disposition is not very unusual in copyright acts. However, having a means for works to enter the public domain when the author dies intestate is unusual. – At least this Little Leo hasn’t come across it before.

Intestate succession often results in the dividing of assets among many heirs. By allowing the work to enter the public domain instead of falling under multi-party ownership, the Sudanese Copyright Act prevents that work from being held in the unlicensable, unusable state of orphan works.*

When authors die without an heir, having their works enter the public domain actually aligns with how tangible property is generally treated. In fact, this exact treatment of copyrighted works was suggested at the orphan works conference by Lydia Loren who sees the public as the remainderman when it comes to intellectual property. Sudan’s copyright act may be a great place to start for exploring this further.

*Since a person can usually only have heirs if the person dies intestate (as opposed to beneficiaries of a will), the phrase “dies intestate or leaves no heir” is a bit confusing. I’ve chosen not to address this here since that would make the post too long.

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