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The Workshop on Integration and Implementation of IP Tools for the ARIPO Member States

23 Jun 2022
Group photo from the event

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and AfrIPI are hosted a Workshop on Integration and Implementation of Intellectual Property (IP) Tools for the ARIPO Member States on 21 and 22 June 2022. The workshop took place at the ARIPO Secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe.

At the workshop there were at least two representatives from each of the following 24 countries: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The workshop was opened by the remarks given by the ARIPO Director General, Mr Bemanya Twebaze and the Chairperson of the ARIPO Admin Council Mr Willie Mushayi. The speakers and facilitator at the workshop were representatives from AfrIPI, ARIPO, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland.

In the last decade, EUIPO has worked very closely with the European Union’s Member State IP offices to develop IP tools that help make their work more efficient and which make IP information freely available to the public – openly and transparently. This workshop will share these tools with ARIPO Member States as well as its Observer and Potential Member States to demonstrate the positive impact of these tools in IP offices.

IP tools offer immediate tangible benefits to the users of the IP system in Africa, such as, among others, quality and reliability and access to information. At the same time, these tools generate efficiency gains for IP administrations and free up resources to expand the IP rights services offered.

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