IP’s Role in Driving Innovation

The inclusion of an IPR Protocol in AfCFTA illustrates the importance attached to promoting IP awareness and understanding to the African innovation ecosystem. In this context, there are a number of important national and regional initiatives.

In Egypt, for example, the government published the first National Intellectual Property Strategy in September 2022, which will lead to fundamental reforms over the next five years with the aim of promoting innovation and creativity, leading to greater prosperity and sustainable development. “The Strategy should raise awareness, consolidate services under one roof, and motivate national innovation,” says Dina Eldib, Partner, Eldib & Co (Egypt).

In Nigeria, the government recently passed the Business Facilitation Act 2023, which includes reforms to designs, patents, and trademarks (including the introduction of trademarks for services). In March this year, the Copyright Act 2022 also come into force. “This provides protections for the various forms of innovation in the creative industries, including audiovisual works, and introduces stricter criminal liability and anti-piracy measures, including the ability to block infringing content,” says Ms. Olaloye.

As manufacturing is relatively weak compared to agriculture in many African economies, innovation is often protected by other forms of IP. These can include copyright, design rights, and trademarks to protect innovative features of apps and digital services, as well as utility models where they are available (such as in Kenya), plant variety protection, and trade secrets. Geographical indications may also have an important role to play, particularly for the promotion of sustainable development: the EUIPO-funded AfrIPI project is supporting the implementation of a continental GI strategy, and a roundtable on the topic was held in February this year.

Patent filing is still dominated by overseas entities in most African countries, but a number of initiatives aim to make the patent system more accessible to local enterprises. These efforts include discounts or subsidies for individual inventors or small entities, simpler procedures, training, and awareness raising.

Leading these efforts are the regional organizations, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI).

Patent applications by nationals of OAPI Member States grew by 44 percent last year, driven by responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. OAPI is also seeing more applications in the energy sector, according to a spokesperson.

“Everything leads us to believe that this trend will become more pronounced over the coming decades, both for health and sanitary devices and for the development of the digital economy,” Outule Rapuleng, Head of the ARIPO Academy (Zimbabwe), highlighting the important role that patent databases can play: “Researchers are not aware that patent databases have up to 80 percent of all technical information, which means that they are often reinventing the wheel.”

ARIPO is working with universities, as well as international partners such as the European Patent Office and WIPO, to raise awareness and promote skills such as patent drafting. For example, researchers have access to over 300 patent libraries in Europe through the EPO’s PATLIB program.

In December last year, European Patent Office President António Campinos (Germany) completed a mission to Africa, which included meetings with ARIPO and OAPI, to build ties and promote cooperation. He also discussed a proposed Validation Agreement between OAPI and the EPO, which would enable European patents to be validated in OAPI Member States. The EPO already has validation agreements with Morocco and Tunisia.

Other important initiatives to promote IP awareness include a Judges’ Colloquium on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Africa, which was hosted by AfrIPI earlier this month in Swakopmund, Namibia. AfrIPI also created a pan-African database of IP rights case law in 2021.