The Administrative Council of ARIPO has recently adopted various amendments to the Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs and to the Banjul Protocol on Marks. These amendments came into effect on 1st January 2020, but they are not retroactive in respect of applications filed before 1st January 2020.   As far as trade mark protection in ARIPO is concerned, the situation remains that only four of the member states have enacted the Banjul Protocol and make specific provision for...

Further to our previous article on this website concerning renewal fee payments due in Samoa, the Samoan Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Labour (MCIL), which administers the patent system in Samoa, has now advised that patent maintenance fees under the Intellectual Property Act 2011 which fell due between 1st October 2012 (when the 2011 Act commenced) and 1st January 2017 (when the official fees under the Act were first set) are also now payable. The MCIL had previously advised us that...

A new law, The Industrial Property Act 2019, has been recently passed by the Mauritius Parliament. The new Act received approval on 9th August 2019 from the Interim President of the Republic of Mauritius and was published in the Mauritius Government Gazette on 10th August 2019. It will come into effect from the date of its proclamation (as decided by the Parliament), although the various section of the Act may come into force on different dates.   The new Act consolidates all IP-related...