Trademarks

On June 15, Kenya Industrial Property Institute publishes a Special Industrial Property Journal regarding new trademark rules. Under Section 23 of the Trademarks Act, all trademarks registration expires after ten (10) years, however, a proprietor of a registered trademark can always apply for its renewal.

In sum:

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) was established in 1976 under the Lusaka Agreement. It is an intergovernmental association, which brings together jurisdictions to cooperate in IP matters and bolsters IP protection for its members by facilitating proceedings, simplifying formality requirements, and providing an online register and an online gazette. The member states are Botswana, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Vitor Palmela Fidalgo of Inventa International gives us an overview of “genuine use” in Angola’s latest industrial property Bill.

WIPO recently released its annual 2019 statistics, which revealed a record year in terms of international IP rights. This article focuses on international trademark applications coming from Africa.

The Madrid Protocol on the International Registration of Marks (1989) currently has 106 members, covering 122 countries. In Africa, the Madrid Protocol has 22 members over 38 countries, due to the participation of the African Intellectual Property Organisation.

On 30 July 2019, the Mauritius Parliament approved and passed the Industrial Property Bill 2019, it was then published in the Government Gazette on 10 August 2019. The bill aims to update and strengthen protection for IP rights, as well as to harmonize the current legislation in order to meet the challenges of the globalized industry.

There have been many changes in 2020 to procedures for registering industrial property rights in Angola, particularly with regard to trademark registration. The most significant revision is the change to the payment period for granting fees, which alters the entire procedure for registering trademarks in the country, along with the possibility of requesting a 60-day extension.

The government of Mozambique deposited its instrument of Accession to the Banjul Protocol on the 15th of May 2020 and will effectively become a member of ARIPO’s protocol for trademarks on August 15, 2020. It will, therefore, be possible to designate Mozambique in an ARIPO application filed from that date.

Zanzibar’s Business and Property Registration Agency (BPRA) recently introduced several changes to its practice, which are set to have an impact on the country’s IP landscape.

The most important amendment is arguably the introduction of an online registration system. It aims to accelerate application proceedings, although this may take a while to be fully effective as it will require automating all existing processes. Implementing a paperless office is a positive, environmentally friendly decision.

Angola is one of many countries that recognises IP rights as an important contribution to a country’s social and economic development. It is a member of WIPO and adopted the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Further, Law 3/92 (published in the Official Gazette (9) on 28 February 1992) was the first piece of specific IP legislation in the country.

The following registration process for a trademark in Angola is simple and similar to procedures in many other jurisdictions:

The Angolan Patent and Trademark Office has announced by Notification n.º 7/2020, the resumption of its activities from April 27.

This Notification follows the Presidential Decree No. 120/20, of April 24 which, despite extending the state of emergency, provides in its Article 14 the reopening of the Public Services and foresees some security measures.