Licensing and Agreements

Intellectual property rights cover exclusive rights originating from the mental labour of their creators or inventors and include copyright, trademarks, industrial designs, patents, geographical indications, and plant variety rights.

IP rights may be the subject of a licence, where the proprietor of an IP right (the licensor) while maintaining the ownership, authorises a third person (the licensee) to use and exploit the IP right during trade, under the terms and conditions set out by both parties.

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, the use of patents has been one of the valuable tools used for the protection of inventions, particularly inventions that are considered to have commercial value and appeal.

Owning a patent gives you a valuable property right, it allows an inventor to commercially make, use, and sell inventions for a specified period.

Introduction

By the end of 2019, humanity was confronted by a new infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus, the covid-19 that led, on March 11th, 2020 the Word Health Organization (WHO) to declare the state of a global pandemic.

Africa is a vast continent with 54 countries and a plethora of legal traditions that can bewilder trademark applicants wishing to protect their intellectual property in this fast-growing region. The continent boasts two regional agreements, which allow multi-jurisdictional trademark applications: the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI) and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO). These two organisations cover 27 countries and greatly facilitate the process of applying for and protecting trademarks in Africa.

On May 18 and 19, 2020, the 73rd Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) took place, which, considering the circumstances we find ourselves, was held for the first time virtually. This Assembly resulted in the long-awaited Resolution that aims to provide a global response to Covid-19. The Resolution was co-sponsored by more than 130 countries and adopted by consensus.

Toys “R” Us Iberia was advised by Inventa International in the Intellectual Property licensing and compliance process, that includes Toys “R” Us Portugal. 

Toys “R” Us was recently bought, in the Iberian Peninsula, by Green Swan, a Portuguese company led by Paulo Andrez. The Intellectual Property licensing and compliance process, that run during 2018’s second semester, was concluded in January 2019.

This year’s AIPLA Annual meeting was held in Washington. Numerous Intellectual Property - IP professionals from across the globe got together, to overview major issues concerning this business.

A wide range of topics, related with Trademarks, Copyright, Patent Licensing and Patent Litigation were on the agenda that also approached the concerns with Artificial Intelligence and Copyright.

Over the past four years, Angola has been trying to get out of the deep crisis that has plagued the country. With the fall in oil prices, the economy has shaken and the stability of companies has never been the same. The Angolan economy was supported substantially by Petroleum. This is evident when we look at the 3600 patent applications in Angola, which mostly belong to the petroleum sector.

ARM Holdings, a Cambridge-based internet technology company that designs chips and holds the title as the UK’s only global-scale tech company and is also listed in the FTSE 100 has accepted a takeover offer by the Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank for $31.4 billion.

Following several months of uncertainty and speculation, the trans-Atlantic agreement between the European Union and the United States of America has been officially adopted on Tuesday the 12th of July, 2016.