AfrIPI Hosts Final Conference to Boost OAPI Judges’ IP Expertise

From 25 to 27 June 2024 in Libreville, Gabon, the Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Africa Project (AfrIPI), in collaboration with the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), organised a regional conference for judges and magistrates from the seventeen OAPI Member States.

This fourth meeting is the culmination of many years of support provided by AfrIPI through OAPI to the African Network of Intellectual Property Magistrates (RAMPI) since 2021, enabling:

• the establishment of RAMPI;

• the creation, presentation, and operation of a case law database with over fifty decisions accessible to OAPI and RAMPI;

• the organisation of tailored seminars to meet the needs of the magistrates/judges and increase their capacity to improve the quality of intellectual property litigation in the OAPI region;

• the development of working materials to support RAMPI in adopting best practices in administrative and judicial practices related to intellectual property rights;

• the organisation of the RAMPI General Assembly sessions.

The three-day conference provided an opportunity for IP enforcement officers to discuss best practices and gain a better understanding of how to improve IP litigation and IP-related challenges within the judicial and administrative systems. It was attended by the Minister of Industry, Dr. François Mbongo Rafemo Bourdette; representatives of the Ministry of Justice; the head of cooperation of the EU delegation to Gabon, Didier CARTON; the AfrIPI deputy project leader, Carlos Lleo Satorre; OAPI representatives; a member of the Boards of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office; three non-OAPI member countries (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Madagascar), IP experts and members of the RAMPI association.