The Union of the Comoros becomes the 17th member of OAPI as of May 25, 2013 following the ratification of the Bangui Agreement on March, 25 2013. The ratification as well the transfer of competence to OAPI was formalized during the visit of the Assistant Director General and the Director of Legal Affairs to OAPI to the Comoros.

As such a result the publication of cautionary notices every two years will no longer be required to insure the protection of IP rights in the Comoros and the protection of trademarks, patents, designs, utility models and plant varieties) in the Comoros will be carried out through OAPI as of May 25, 2013.

Although the Comoros had IP laws, namely Law No. 64-1360 of December 31, 1964 on Trademarks and Service Marks, they were never enforced since the IP Office of Comoros was only instituted in the year of 2010, by Presidential Decree No. 10-173/PR of November 26, 2010, and its Director was nominated in 2011.

New Trademark Regulations have been approved in Ethiopia and the Trademark Law of 2006 will now become effective. As a result, the publication of cautionary notices is no longer effective to ensure the protection of IP rights in Ethiopia.

Trademarks will now be granted with a validity period of 7 years and the registration procedure will have to meet the requirements lay down in the new Regulations, namely the following documents will be required:

• Power of Attorney legalized up to the Ethiopian Consul,
• Proof that the Applicant is engaged with business activity
  • Certificate of Business License or
  • Notarized confirmation issued by a lawyer indicating that the country at issue does not issue Business Licenses
  • Certified copy of home in any other jurisdiction of the registration of the trademark with the corresponding English translation.

December 11, 2012, will be remembered as a historic day for all European inventors: finally, the European Parliament ended decades of negotiations, trying to unify the European Union (EU) patent system. The ‘EU patent package’, an agreement between 25 member states (All EU Countries except Spain and Italy) will enable inventors to save up to 80% the cost of obtaining an European Patent. It is expected to enter into force as from January 1, 2014.

The current patent system in Europe is very costly and complex. An inventor must seek the protection of his patent by the European Patent Office (EPO) and validate it in each Member State, one by one. This involves very expensive costs in administrative proceedings and mandatory translations.

On September, 13th 2012, the African Organization for Intellectual Property (OAPI) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

Founded on September 13, 1962, the OAPI brings together 16 Member States on a unified system of IP protection (mostly French speaking countries), namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo.
This date was institutionalized as “The African Day of Technology and Intellectual Property" and its celebration events are organized by a different Member State every year.

This year the celebration was held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, nearby the OAPI headquarters, from 11 to 13 September 2012 and numerous demonstrations were held.