Work plan 2022

AfrIPI has four main objectives:

  1. Promotion of Intellectual Property international agreements for a reinforced cooperation between EU and Africa;
  2. Strengthening of national and regional Intellectual Property institutions, networks, and tools, to increase a user- friendly and efficient protected IP system;
  3. Raising awareness of Intellectual Property Rights (including Geographical Indications) in the African society for Small and Medium- sized Enterprises (SMEs);
  4. Implementation of the work plan activities linked to the African Union (AU) Continental Strategy for Geographical Indications.

To achieve these results, the overall work plan sets a multiannual framework in terms of thematic and geographic priorities, complemented by plans to be developed each year containing detailed activities.

As a Pan-African Action targeting many countries and sub-regions, a geographical balance for activity implementation is sought. Activities are identified each year in close coordination with stakeholders, particularly AU Member States, ARIPO, OAPI, National IP Offices, the private sector and other organisations such as the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC).

AfrIPI Activity Clusters and Key Activities

No. Description Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Component I: International Agreements
1 Regional workshop on accession to the Banjul Protocol
2 Support for the development of a national framework for copyrights in Equatorial Guinea voluntary registration of copyrights and related rights
3 Legal and technical assistance to the AfCFTA Secretariat for the Phase II negotiations on IPR
4 Legal and technical assistance to the RECs for the Phase II negotiations on IPR
Component II: Capacity building
5 Support for the Setup and Strengthening of Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) in ARIPO member states
6 Consultative roundtable on counterfeiting in Nigeria
7 Consultative roundtable on enforcement of IPR for North African countries
8 Development of patent examination guidelines for OAPI
9 Support for the ARIPO Patent Examination Training
10 Patent examination training programme (OAPI)
11 Training on IPR examination practices
12 Study and mentorship visits
13 Judges Colloquium on Enforcement
14 Support for the Creation of an Association of Judges for OAPI Member States
15 Integration and Implementation of IP Tools
16 Support for the digitalisation of the Nigeria IP Office: ‘Capture and Store’ of Trade Marks Paper Files
17 Technical support on the reference collections for the accredited research and examination centres on plant varieties in OAPI countries
18 Regional Conference for OAPI MS on the Status of the Protection and Use of African Medicinal Inventions
19 Trade mark and Design Guidelines of Egyptian TIDO: revision and Technical Working Group participation
Component III: SME's and IP
20 Africa IP SME Helpdesk
21 Support for the establishment of university-private sector innovation platforms for OAPI countries
22 Expert support for the OAPI online master’s training programme
23 Expert Support for the ARIPO Master’s Training Programme
24 IP Awareness Sessions on Patents and Innovation for ARIPO Countries
25 ARIPO IP Awareness Campaign
26 Promotional workshop on designs and utility models for ARIPO
27 EU-Africa Business Forum
28 World IP Day in Cooperation with WIPO
Component IV: Geographical Indications
29 Technical support for the development of the legal framework for GIs in OAPI countries
30 Technical support for the development of the legal framework for GIs in ARIPO countries
31 Technical support for the development of the legal framework for GIs in other countries
32 Support the registration at national level of GIs for OAPI countries
34 Support the registration at EU level of GIs for Kilichi du Niger
35 Maintenance and the future of the GI Hub
35 Support the registration at national level for one pilot in Egypt
36 GI awareness
37 Support to the screening of GIs in Chad