ARIPO: IP laws and fees amendments

The 15th Session of the Council of Ministers of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) held on November 2015, made some changes and additions into the Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs and its implementing Regulations and into the Banjul Protocol on Marks and the implementing Regulations. The brief overview of amendments is represented below.

Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs

• According to amended Section 3(1) of Harare Protocol and Rule 5(1) of Regulations, an application shall contain the sequence listing if it contains the disclosure of nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences.
• The Rule 18bis was added to the Regulations. This Rule provides applicants with the possibility of filing divisional applications and sets conditions of filing thereof.
• Under the amended Regulations (Rule 22(6)) an applicant may now request an extension of time limits on condition of paying the prescribed fee.

Trademarks

• A definition of a “Mark” was added to the Rule 1 of Regulations for Implementing the Banjul Protocol. According to the Rule “Mark” includes a sign, name, word, device, brand, heading, level signature, letter, numeral or a combination thereof.
• Under the amended Rule 3 of the Regulations, number of words in the list of goods and services for each class of a trademark application is limited by 50 words. Each additional word in excess of 50 entails paying an extra fee of $5 per word.
• An electronic filing of an ARIPO trademark application is now possible under the Rule 5bis which establishes conditions and procedure of electronic filing.
• Furthermore the new Rule 11.3 was added to the Regulations providing the 2 month term for applicant to respond to a notice of a refusal of an application after examination procedure.

According to the amendments new fees were added to the ARIPO fee schedule. Mentioned amendments as well as fee changes entered into force on January 1, 2016.

Author: Lynda Miller