Prosecution

Once again we remind you that the Law 31/2009, of December 2009, on the Protection of Intellectual Property in Rwanda established a 10-year duration period for trademarks, counting from the filing date.

In this connection, all trademarks registered in Rwanda before 2009 must be renewed until 14 December 2019.

Following the new Value Added Tax (VAT), since July of 2019, which stipulates that each requested action with the Trademark Office is subject to VAT of 14%, there is a new increase in the official fees for trademark prosecution by the Egyptian Trademark Office.

Implemented by the ministerial decree no.179, of the 4th of September 2019, this increase in official fees would be implemented from 5th of September, but it has so far been put on hold.

Once the new fees are introduced, our schedule of fees will be amended to reflect this change.

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) has changed the procedure regarding patent search and examination fee, based on Article 28 (2) of the Inventions, Minor Inventions & Industrial Design Regulation Number 12/1997.

According to this new procedure, implemented at the end of the last year, an applicant should pay search and substantive examination fee of USD 200 after filing an application. Although there is no specific period for attending this payment, the EIPO recommends that this should be done as soon as possible.

Traditional Knowledge (TK) is, in accordance to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “a living body of knowledge passed on from generation to generation within a community”. Traditional Knowledge is the know-how, skills and practices developed within a community, forming part of its cultural identity, which is passed through generations.

A protocol on Patent matters has recently been celebrated between the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of Portugal and the Institute of Quality and Intellectual Property Management (IGQPI) of Cape Verde, aiming to improve the services provided by the latter.

The new Portuguese Industrial Property Code was published on December 10th last year. After six months have passed we reiterate some of the main changes.

Patents | Utility Models | Drawings or Models

Article 27 of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) rules the patentable subject matter. However, its numbers 2 and 3 establish merely a permission, providing that some subject matter may be excluded by Treaty Members. This is one of the reasons why the rules that determine the patentable subject matter in national or regional laws differ.

SENAPI – Sao Tome and Principe Intellectual Property Office has announced an update of the official fees for the Intellectual Property (IP) procedures in the country.

The new fees came in to force on 1, July 2019, and reflect a slight increment of the values charged on all procedures concerning Trademarks, Patents, Industrial Designs and other generic fees applied by the services.

The evolution of sports can be told by means of the patent literature. While athletes, sportsmen and teams seek to break records, achieve victories or just have fun, patents, in parallel, showcase new technologies to overcome the challenges of sports or even make them more accessible and interesting for the public.