Support for IP Academic Masters Programmes

Since 2021, AfrIPI has committed to support two diverse Intellectual Property (IP) Master’s Programmes offered by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) Member States.

For the 2024/2025 academic year, the Master’s Programmes, which are taught in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), encompass distance learning, face-to-face lectures, research work, internships, and a final examination. In addition, some modules in the distance-learning programme will be delivered by the European Union Intellectual Property Office on relevant topics to be decided by the ARIPO, the OAPI and the EUIPO.

On the ARIPO side, AfrIPI will contribute its expertise to the comprehensive IP Master’s Programme in English at three universities: the Africa University (AU) in Zimbabwe, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in Tanzania.

The OAPI IP Master’s programme, which is in its 14th edition, is hosted by the University of Yaoundé II. The programme is sponsored by the Government of Japan through the Japanese Patent Office.

The objective of AfrIPI’s support to the training of IP experts in Africa is to:

• support regional IP offices in developing IP skills to contribute to the economic and social development of African countries;

• increase the number of IP experts and grow knowledge about IP to respond to the various challenges and related development issues;

• raise awareness about the AfrIPI project and its engagement in IP development in Africa.