African Regional Intellectual Property Organization

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), formerly African Regional Industrial Property Organization, is an intergovernmental organization for cooperation among African states in patent and other intellectual property matters. ARIPO was established by the Lusaka Agreement[1] of 1976. It has the capacity to hear applications for patents and registered trademarks in its member states who are parties to the Harare (patents), Banjul (marks) and Arusha (plant varieties) protocols.[1] ARIPO also features a protocol on the protection of traditional knowledge, the Swakopmund Protocol,[1] signed in 2010 by 9 member states of the organization which entered into force on May 11, 2015, and was amended on December 6, 2016.

Map of current ARIPO members in blue, nations with observer status in green.

ARIPO has the WIPO ST.3 code AP. Its 19 member states[2] are mostly English-speaking countries. Rwanda became the 18th member state on March 24, 2010,[3][4] and São Tomé and Príncipe on May 19, 2014 (the Harare Protocol entered into force on August 19, 2014 with respect to São Tomé and Príncipe).[5]

The name of the organization changed from African Regional Industrial Property Organization to African Regional Intellectual Property Organization in 2005.

Members
Membership and implemented protocols as of 31 December 2020[6]
Country Date of accession/ratification
Lusaka Agreement Harare Protocol Banjul Protocol Swakopmund Protocol Arusha Protocol
(not yet in force)
 Botswana 6 February 19856 May 198529 October 200328 March 2012X
 Gambia 15 February 197816 January 1986X11 February 2015X
 Ghana 15 February 197825 April 1984XXX
 Kenya 15 February 197824 October 1984XXX
 Lesotho 23 July 198723 October 198712 February 1999XX
 Liberia 24 December 200924 March 201024 March 201025 October 2016X
 Malawi 15 February 197825 April 19846 March 199720 December 2012X
 Mozambique 8 February 20008 May 200015 May 2020XX
 Namibia 14 October 200323 April 200414 January 200411 February 2015X
 Rwanda 24 June 201124 September 2011X16 July 20127 June 2019
 São Tomé and Príncipe 19 May 201419 August 201427 November 2015X29 September 2020
 Sierra Leone 5 December 198025 February 1999XXX
 Somalia 10 December 1981XXXX
 Sudan 2 May 197825 April 1984XXX
 Swaziland 17 December 198717 March 19886 March 1997XX
 Tanzania 12 October 19831 September 19991 September 1999XX
 Uganda 8 August 197825 April 198421 November 2000XX
 Zambia 15 February 197826 February 1986X28 August 2015X
 Zimbabwe 11 November 198025 April 19846 March 199722 April 2013X

(Tanzania does not include Zanzibar, which operates under its own, independent intellectual property regime and maintains a separate office for the registration of intellectual property.[7])

As of 31 December 2019, five countries have signed the Arusha Protocol of 6 July 2015 (Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Tanzania).[8] As of 31 December 2020, two countries have ratified or acceded to it (Rwanda and São Tomé and Príncipe).[9][10] For the Protocol to enter into force, four countries need to have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession.[11]

Observers
  1.  Algeria
  2.  Angola
  3.  Burundi
  4.  Egypt
  5.  Eritrea
  6.  Ethiopia
  7.  Libya
  8.  Mauritius
  9.  Nigeria
  10.  Seychelles
  11.  South Africa
  12.  Tunisia

Organs

ARIPO’s organisational structure consists of four organs: the Council of Ministers, the Administrative Council, the Secretariat, and the Board of Appeal.

Rights covered

Together, the two protocols constituting the organisation cover copyright, industrial design, patent, trademark, traditional knowledge and utility model rights.[12]

See also

References
  1. See the list of ARIPO-administered treaties at WIPO website. Consulted on July 4, 2013.
  2. "Member States". ARIPO. Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  3. ARIPO web site, Rwanda Joins ARIPO Archived November 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, News, Thursday, 4 August 2011. Consulted on September 16, 2011.
  4. Rwanda Joins ARIPO, PCT Newsletter, September 2011, No. 09/2010, p. 1.
  5. "Sào Tomé and Príncipe". ARIPO. Retrieved 30 May 2014.; "Sao Tome and Principe Joins ARIPO". PCT Newsletter, No. 06/2014. WIPO. June 2014. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  6. ARIPO, "PERMANENT NOTICES" (31 December 2020) 37(12) ARIPO Journal, 2.
  7. ED de Plessis, Adams & Adams Practical Guide to Intellectual Property in Africa (Pretoria University Law Press 2012) 567, 584ff; BM Wood-Kahari, "ARIPO" in E Fennessy (ed), Trademarks Throughout the World (Clark Boardman Callaghan) (looseleaf, October 2019 Update), para 9A:1.
  8. ARIPO, "ARIPO 2019 Annual Report" (2020) accessed 19 January 2021, 13.
  9. ARIPO, "Rwanda takes the lead in joining the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants within the framework of ARIPO" (7 June 2019) accessed 19 January 2021.
  10. ARIPO, "São Tomé and Príncipe Ratifies the Arusha Protocol" (1 October 2020) accessed 19 January 2021.
  11. Arusha Protocol 2015, art 40(3).
  12. "ARIPO Patent Office homepage". Archived from the original on 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
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