Friday, April 17, 2015

Ferguson and Schneider on Enforcement of IP Rights in Africa

Vanessa Ferguson and Marius Schneider have published a paper titled Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Africa in the April 2015 issue of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, pages 269-79.  Here is a link to the article, and here is the abstract:
This article provides an overview of enforcement measures that are available to intellectual property right-holders on the African continent. Africa is rising—with comparatively high growth rates and a rising number of consumers—and so is the anti-counterfeiting challenge. There are, however, particularities when it comes to enforcing intellectual property rights in Africa which right-holders and practitioners will have to take into account.
The article examines the law and practice in relation to enforcement of intellectual property rights in the following countries and territories: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius and South Africa.
The authors conclude that the enforcement of intellectual property rights in Africa remains a very complex issue, due to the absence of harmonisation of standards and procedures in relation to anti-counterfeiting measures. However, thanks to the efforts and the goodwill of right-holders, practitioners and law enforcement authorities, steady progress is being made when it comes to successful enforcement of intellectual property rights in Africa. 
Although most of the article focuses on measures against counterfeiting, there is also some discussion of border measures, preliminary measures, and civil and criminal penalties for infringement of IP rights generally, including under the Bangui Agreement to which the 17 OAPI states are members.

No comments:

Post a Comment