Patents

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 .

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.

Computer programs appear on Article 52(2)(c) of the European Patent Convention (EPC), of 1973 as a subject matter excluded from the meaning of invention. However, in 2005, the European Patent Organization (EPO) had already granted over thirty thousand patents related to computer programs and, currently, computer-implemented inventions are the object of approximately 35% of European patent applications.

With the beginning of a new civil year, several statistical indicators on Intellectual Property are posted about the preceding year, and 2017 was not the exception.

The increase will also affect pending applications.

On February 13, 2017 the Decree No. 1 of 2017 issued by the President of the Academy of the Scientific Research and Technology of Egypt determined the increase of the fees for patent examination, following the drop in the local currency.

The patent examination fees were increased from EGP 7000 to EGP 17530, the equivalent to approximately USD 1000. An increase of the official fees did not occur since 2003.

The Canada – European Union Trade Agreement (CETA, from Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) aims to facilitate and reduce barriers to trade, as 98% of the trade tariffs will be removed. The deal was recently ratified by the European Parliament. CETA has several Intellectual Property (IP) related provisions which might affect companies that wish to provide goods across borders and protect their IP assets.

The Harare Protocol on Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs governs the regional procedures and substantive requirements for protection of these IP rights amongst its member-states, under the Lusaka Agreement framework and put into practice by the ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Office). The Protocol currently hosts 18 member-states, including amongst others Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Namibia, Sudan or Botswana.

After Brexit was voted there have been assumptions of what would be the future of the Unitary Patent Court and the patent of unitary effect.

The possibility of a non-ratification of the Unitary Patent Court Agreement by the UK before the Brexit was on the table, however, the latest news refer that the UK Government has announced that it would be ratifying the Agreement before officially leaves the UE.

"The struggle to protect patents in Africa" an article written by Vítor Palmela Fidalgo from Inventa International for the magazine The Patent Lawyer.

The Japanese Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued, earlier this month, a new patent classification (ZIT) incorporating only Internet-of-Things-based (IoT) inventions and technology. As such, from 2017 onwards, any interested party will be able to find data and information related to inventions in the IoT department, through the Japanese PTO platforms.

Internet-Of-Things technology is the technical name given to the so-called smart devices networks, the connection between any physical device, be it a microwave or a vehicle.