Prosecution

Macau has a peculiar system for protection of patents and applicants should pay attention to deadlines.

The Industrial Property (IP) Laws of the Macau Special Administrative Region have a great influence from the Portuguese IP Law and there are still Portuguese IP rights that were extended from Portugal to Macau and that are still in force today. The system for trademarks is in line with all the major IP systems that most applicants are used to.

We hereby announce that the Angolan PTO published a notification, requesting all applicants and/or attorneys of trademark applications numbered from 5001 (five thousand and one) to 20.757 (twenty thousand, seven hundred and fifty seven) to present the following documents in order to update the files respective to these trademarks:

   - Copy of the official filing receipt or application request;
   - Power of Attorney or Proxy;
   - Certificate of Incorporation, proving the company's commercial activity in its native country;

The online system enters in force on 18th December of 2017.

On 18th December, the online registrations for all trademarks, patents, renewals and recordals (change of address, name and assignment) will enter in force in Tanzania, meaning that the manual system for filing applications at the Registry will no longer be applicable.

By having an online system, the same will ease the workload at the Registry and the time for registration will be faster.

Introductory note

By the Resolutions of ARIPO’s Administrative Council, on its 40th Session which was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in December 2016, amendments to the Harare Protocol were introduced and have been in force since January 1st, 2017.

The Ministry of Trade of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced an increase of about 15% on the country’s official fees regarding intelectual property, that covers trademark, patent and design registrations.

If you wish to know more about this matter, please contact us at africa@inventa.com .

The concept of Copyleft emerged from the libertarian activism of the free software movement, which brought together programmers from all over the world, in the context of the explosion of new technologies, Internet and the spreading of intangible property.

Copyleft is a concept invented by Don Hopkins and popularized by Richard Stallman in the 1980s, with the GNU project whose main objective was to promote the free share of ideas and information and to encourage the inventiveness.

The launhcing of this domain is divided in 3 phases. The Sunrise Phase started on the past 23rd ofjuly of 2017 and will end on October 22nd of 2017. During this period, only the oweners who have trademarks registered in Kenya will have the right to apply for the corresponding domain names. To do that, it will only be necessary to have a confirmation letter from the Intelectual Property Institute of Kenya to verify if the trademarks are registered in the country.

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), formerly known as English Speaking African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ESARIPO), was created with the Lusaka Agreement (1976) and currently boosts 19 member-states, which are mostly English speaking countries. ARIPO intends to promote the cooperation between members regarding the protection of intellectual property rights and with time it developed to a regional system that allows the registration of patents, trademarks and plant varieties.

Madrid System makes possible for any trademark owner to register the trademark up to 115 territories through a single application.

By adhering to the Protocol, starting on November 7 of 2017, trademark owners in Thailand will be able to designate all the country members of the Madrid Protocol through a single application, making their Intellectual Property assets to become protected on the remaining 98 members of the Protocol.

Intellectual property rights play a crucial role in the marketing strategy of all kinds of an increasing number of companies, and it involves a set of processes, creations and communications offerings which have value for the clients, customers or society in general. Marketing necessarily generates intangible assets that may be protected by intellectual property rights. In fact, this is the first significative aspect of the influence of intellectual property rights on marketing strategies: the protection of intangible assets in a marketing campaign.