Copyright

The worldwide success of African music hits can lead to mixed feelings: happiness over its long-deserved recognition, but also concern that the artists will not get their dues.

By early 2019, amapiano, a style of house music that emerged in South Africa in 2012, had taken over the radio and clubs of South African townships and made stars of artists such as DJ Stokie, Junior Taurus, MFR Souls, Mr JazziQ and Josiah De Disciple, and Kabza De Small.

In relation to the 50th anniversary of Inventa International, we have been given the challenge to analyze certain intellectual property data over the past 50 years on the African continent.

As it is impossible to cover a panoramic view of the various events, we chose just a few topics we found interesting for this minor-scale study. At the outset, it seems important for us to outline a short introduction about the African continent and the protection of industrial property in the countries of which it is made up.

NFTs (nonfungible tokens) are the hot topic of 2021 and will possibly remain so throughout this decade, due to their technical properties.

Understood as one of the generators of digital technical scarcity due to their nonfungible, NFTs are digital certificates or digital authenticity seals that grant ownership of an asset represented as an NFT verifiable via blockchain entry.

Copyright refers to the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works and protects the creators against third parties wishing to take ownership of their work to use it in a different way from the one they proposed originally without their authorisation. This protection, which is embodied in the exclusive right of economic exploitation of the holders of copyright and related rights in relation to their creations, allows the creators to be fairly rewarded for their work.

Whenever reference is made to a work of art named “The Thinker” in Angola, most people will think of the statuette “The Chokwe Thinker” (“O Pensador”).

The history of “O Pensador”, also known as “Samanhonga” or “Kuku”, goes back to 1932, when the Swiss painter and ethnologist Théodore Delachaux found the statuette in a “divination basket” (a basket containing many small objects used for the diviner to made prophecies at request of his clients) during an expedition to Angola. It is a wooden figurine, representing an elder, woman or man, in a position of deep meditation.

In an era where millions of content creators are uploading their works online, copyright infringement has become very easy, being as simple as uploading a TikTok video or making an Instagram Story.

The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances is a multilateral treaty which regulates copyright related rights for audiovisual performances and expands the performers' rights. It was adopted on 26 June 2012 by the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances of the World Intellectual Property Organization, in which 156 WIPO member states, six intergovernmental, and six non-governmental organizations participated. Forty-eight countries signed the treaty on 26 June, followed by 19 other countries in 2012 and 2013.

After successive postponements, the United Kingdom will finally leave the European Union, popularly known as Brexit, with effect from 31 January 2020. It is therefore important to know what will become of the Intellectual Property assets filed and registered through EUIPO.

For that reason we have summarized a practical guide for this transitional period and the future of assets protected in the European Union.

TRADEMARKS

1. Transition period

Last June an amendment to the The Copyright And Neighbouring Rights Act, through The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No.3) Act, 2019, entered into force. In addition to copyright act, other acts have been amended, such as The Companies Act, The Films And Stage Plays Act, among others.

The main amendments to the Copyright Act are as follows:

Cape Verde is implementing some major changes in its approach to Intellectual Property (IP) protection. One of the latest developments in this area was the country’s adherence to three WIPO Treaties, namely: