By Wallace Mawire
The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) is
set to launch a Regional Intellectual Property (IP) database toady
Monday, 10 September 2018. The centralized database with published IP
titles from the ARIPO Member States will not only be accessible online
but will be free for all.
The IP Database is designed to efficiently serve multiple purposes,
including on-line provision of published IP data, encouragement of
regional trade, IP scientific research, IP rights protection and
enforcement in the ARIPO region, as well as sustainable development of
IP.
“Technology is an agent of change, and major technological innovations
have resulted in paradigm shifts in the way business is conducted. As
the ARIPO Office we are utilizing ICT tools to establish our presence
in global intellectual property and to foster creativity and
innovation for economic growth and development in Africa,” says the
ARIPO Director General, Mr. Fernando dos Santos.
“The Office has embarked on a number of ICT projects taking advantage
of the ICT tools available to provide efficiency in IP business
processing, support the availability of IP information, encourage IP
scientific research and IP rights protection and enforcement,” He
adds.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 2016
IP Statistics Report, Africa as a whole accounted for only 0.6% of the
total applications filed internationally. The Database will therefore
contribute significantly to improve the use and uptake of IP in the
ARIPO region thereby increasing the number of local and regional
applications which is still very low.
The IP database will be free and easy to access for searches by IP
Agents and anyone who wishes to find information or register a patent,
industrial design or trademark.
The development of the Regional IP Database was supported by WIPO.
They provided the software for the database and assisted with the
extraction of published IP data from the IPAS system in the Member
States.
The ARIPO Regional IP Database to be launched will have information
from ARIPO, Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The launch will be officiated by the Representative of the Director
General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO),
Project Manager in the IP Office Business Solutions Division, Mr.
Gregory Sadyalunda and the Representative of the Commissioner of the
Japanese Patent Office, the Deputy Director, Information Technology
and Patent Information Management Office, Japan Patent Office, Mr.
Hiroyuki Nishibori.
The link to the database is http://regionalip.aripo.org
