Thursday 28 January 2010
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Kenya - KRA gets police protection
"Please find attached an extract from The Daily Nation. The Police have now joined KRA officially in the fight against fake goods. Useful because the AC act is getting legs now with the anticipated publication of the Rules subsidiary to the Act." (Comment: John Sykei - IP expert based in Niarobi). The Daily Nation report:
"The police and the tax collector on Wednesday announced plans for joint operations to fight graft and the dumping of substandard goods in the country.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said that tax-paying traders were losing heavily as counterfeit goods continued to flood the market. The police, he said, would work together with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to stamp out counterfeit goods.
He noted that export products were also finding their way back into the country, adding that this had made it necessary to have police officers and KRA officials at exit points. “This will ensure that we complement each other in enforcing the law,” the police commissioner said.
He was speaking during a consultative meeting between the police and the KRA at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies. KRA commissioner-general Michael Waweru welcomed the joint effort, saying it would lead to a decrease in tax evasion. “This collaboration will help eliminate trade in counterfeit goods and tax evasion,” he said.
He said the KRA hoped to achieve a revenue collection target of Sh545.2 billion this financial year from the Sh480.6 billion in the 2008/2009 fiscal year. Mr Iteere said the joint effort was part of internal reforms in the Police Force.
Divert goods
The commissioner of customs, Mrs Wambui Namu, noted that the issue of counterfeit goods was rampant. “The extensive and porous Kenyan borders pose an enormous challenge to customs coverage.” Such areas, Mrs Namu added, were used by tax evaders to dump and divert transit and export goods. The revenue authority undertook to cooperate with the police and share information and resources."
Afro Leo is delighted by the news but wants to know what, if any, solution there was regarding the contentious clauses making generics counterfeit. Thanks John and the Daily Nation.
Tuesday 26 January 2010
WHO's strategy good news for Africa but what about IP?
"The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a plan to ask governments to impose a global consumer tax on such things as Internet activity or everyday financial transactions like paying bills online. Such a scheme could raise "tens of billions of dollars" on behalf of the United Nations' public health arm from a broad base of consumers, which would then be used to transfer drug-making research, development and manufacturing capabilities, among other things, to the developing world (sounds like good news for Africa). The multibillion-dollar "indirect consumer tax" is only one of a "suite of proposals" for financing the rapid transformation of the global medical industry that will go before WHO's 34-member supervisory Executive Board at its biannual meeting in Geneva." (Foxnews
"In May 2003 [WHO] established an independent, time-limited body, the Commission on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights, to collect data and proposals from the people and institutions involved and present an analysis of intellectual property rights, innovation and public health, including appropriate funding and incentive mechanisms for the creation of new medicines and other products against diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. The Commission concluded that intellectual property rights provide important incentives for the development of new medicines and medical technologies. Those rights are not, however, an effective incentive when patients are either too few or poor. As a result, there is a gap in the innovation cycle: in some cases no product exists to address the health needs of the poor, and, in other cases, products exist, but little effort is made to ensure that they are affordable for poor communities. Other incentives, financial mechanisms and coordination among stakeholders are needed."
Published a few days ago is the full Report of the Expert Working Group set up by WHO as a consequence of the Commission's conclusions to develop proposals for new and innovative sources of financing, to stimulate research and development. Some of the controversy over its publication (including an apparent neglect over IP rights) is revealed by Foxnews here.
Monday 25 January 2010
biopiracy in Alice
The community is supported by the Africa Centre for biodiversity, although the South African government is not a party to the action, instituted in a Munich court.
The full story, written by Yolandi Groenewald, appears in the South African Mail and Guardian here http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-01-22-town-like-alice-takes-on-german-biopirate
Thursday 21 January 2010
When bad milk looks like sour grapes
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Is Uganda's proposed anti-counterfeit legislation bad milk?
Tuesday 19 January 2010
ARIPO grows
Liberia becomes the 17th member state of ARIPO, the 16th amongst states party to the Harare Protocol (for patents, industrial designs and utility models) and the 9th amongst states party to the Banjul Protocol (for trademarks).
States currently party to the Harare Protocol are:
Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Afro Leo would like to know whether Liberia has domesticated the Aripo Protocols.
Monday 18 January 2010
Ethiopia aims to capitalise on its coffee trade mark experience
The Bullring
The Bidvest Wanderers Cricket Stadium, affectionately known as the "Bullring" because of its intimidatory atmosphere, is a relatively small ground with steepish stands capable of accommodating 35000 passionate cricket fans in the heart of Africa’s commercial capital - Johannesburg. Add to this, dramatic thunderstorms, the final test against the English in a must win for the host country, 30 degree heat, some controversy, a fast bouncing pitch and it is very difficult to avoid getting a ticket if you have an opportunity to watch a late afternoon session, like this blogger had on Saturday.
Thursday 14 January 2010
Africa Needs Strong ICT Policies
Tuesday 12 January 2010
Goodwill Hunting – attempting to split goodwill from an unregistered mark (the Incledon case)
“The writers [Neethling & Van Heerden] express the view that the primary function of a distinctive [unregistered] mark is to distinguish an entrepreneur's own product from similar products, hence the mark has distinguishing value. The mark can exist independently of the undertaking and does not necessarily lose its value when such business ceases to exist. The mark can exist independently of the goodwill of the business, since it could continue to have value long after the business has closed down. It can therefore be assumed that when an entrepreneur assigns a distinctive mark to a third party, by implication he also transfers the goodwill or part of it which he has created. The distinctive mark or name individualizes the undertaking and contributes towards attracting custom and therefore the creation of goodwill. The distinctive mark can become an important, if not the most important component in the formation and development of goodwill.” Para 25 of the judgment.
The reasoning is difficult to follow. It seems to say that goodwill and a distinctive unregistered trade mark can exist independently of each other but that assigning them separately is not possible. Registered trade marks can of course be sold without goodwill.
If one purchases a right to an unregistered trade mark then the question one always asks is what are you purchasing, if you do not purchase the right to the goodwill symbolized by that trade mark? In this case, if one purchases a business as a going concern that trades using a distinctive trade mark then that unregistered trade mark is distinctive because of its inherent nature and/or because of the use made of it by the seller (the two methods of creating distinctiveness are recognised by the Trade Marks Act (see Section 9(2)). The use of the trade mark generates reputation which is a component of goodwill. Such goodwill would, in Afro Leo’s opinion, as a matter of logic therefore be included in such a sale.
Click here for Afro Leo's summary and other comments
Click here for information on how to split hairs
Click here for information about how to do the splits
Monday 11 January 2010
Tanzania Intellectual property Body launched
The Tanzania Intellectual Property Rights Network (TIP- Net)was launched at a workshop on livestock keepers' rights, traditional knowledge and intellectual property in December in Arusha, Tanzania. One interesting aspect of the network is that it will publish a quarterly newsletter on Intellectual Property rights.
The organisation will be headed by Mr. Laltaika, a Phd Candidate at the Max Planck Institute, and will work closely with BRELA, Tanzania's Business Registration and licensing authority as well as the Copyright Association of Tanzania.
This development is quite welcome not only in Tanzania but in the region as a whole, since widespread ignorance of the purpose and functions of Intellectual Property are in part responsible for infringement. This is especially so in the area of copyrighted materials and trademarks. The challenge will be to conduct sensitization continuously and among a broad spectrum of entities and people to ensure enduring results.
Friday 8 January 2010
New domain name extensions for Kenya
• .me.ke for personal names (£15.00 per year)Anyone who owns a co.ke domain name or who holds trade mark rights in Kenya should give serious consideration to securing that domain name or trade mark in the three new extensions too.
• .info.ke for information (£18.00 per year)
• .mobi.ke for mobile content (£18.00 per year)
Trimega continued
For the rest of us, the instant breathalysers that would have made drink-driving more easy to police, appear to have taken a back seat.
Thursday 7 January 2010
Inspiring, Exciting, Concerning?
Wednesday 6 January 2010
Road rage - alcohol testing company not pleased
Monday 4 January 2010
The First January Post
Some of Afro-IP’s most popular, controversial or thought generating posts last year include the following (in no particular order):
· The ongoing counterfeit problem (including access to drugs) throughout Africa and possible solutions
· The spate of SCA trade mark cases in RSA and commentary
· Graham Gilfillan being sued by Samro for defamation (including for comments posted on this blog) and then successfully defending his position in court
· Kenya’s controversial decision not to have jurisdiction to revoke ARIPO patents
· India’s protest over Kenya’s new anti-counterfeit legislation
· The Russian NIGAZ branding blunder in Nigeria
· South African content providers’ strike and success in helping to bring the SABC to its knees, forcing board resignations and a request for a government bail out
· Kelbrick v Dean over the controversial Metcash ambush marketing decision ahead of FIFA’s World Cup tournament in Africa in 2010
· CIPRO’s dramatic fall from grace by being implicated in CIPROGATE - a fraud scandal by employees of its office
· The comments of LLM student Natasha Rey which forced a media statement from CIPRO and helped facilitate better decisions at informal hearings
· Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda helping to forge the East African Common market – the East African Community
· INTA’s annual Africa Update and the Rolex Gang capture outside the IP Crammer™
· Zimbabwe’s high advertisement cost scandal
· The race for firms and brands to get a footprint in Africa
· Efforts to protect indigenous knowledge through IP rights protection
This year Afro-IP will be extending its coverage of IP news and views across Africa. Look out for new initiatives and in the meantime, Afro-IP wishes its readers all the very best for 2010 and thanks you for your continued support.