Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2014 submitted by ARIPO

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Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization

• The main policies and plans of ARIPO in 2014 were anchored on the Consolidated Medium Term Strategic Plan 2014 - 2015 biennium adopted by the Administrative Council of ARIPO at its 37th Session held in Kampala, Uganda from November 25 to 26, 2013. The Consolidated Strategic Plan approved by the Administrative Council reduced the strategic goals to five, and the implementing programmes to 15.
• The ARIPO/WIPO/KOICA Project to Upgrade and Modernize the ARIPO ICT Infrastructure and those of its Member States registered important developments with the deployment of several missions from Korea, including a resident consultant. Equipment to support the project was received.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

• For 2014, the flagship program was the “ARIPO Roving Seminars” aiming at creating awareness on IP and ARIPO activities. The Roving Seminars which were held in Gambia, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Swaziland benefited 655 participants. The Roving Seminars undertaken by the ARIPO officials in the member States included technical missions to the IP Offices.

• With regard to trademark applications, the trend is also positive with the numbers increasing steadily

• An MoU was signed with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM)

Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

• Amendments to the Banjul Protocol in order to improve its usage.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

• With regard to trademark applications, the numbers increased from 321 in 2013 to 362 in 2014.
• The five most designated states for trademarks in 2014 and since the inception of the system are: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana and Uganda.

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

• Website: www.aripo.org
• Face book account under African Regional Intellectual Property Organization

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

• To ensure compliance with the ARIPO trade mark procedures, two national roving seminars under the theme "making better use of intellectual property for business competitiveness and development in Africa" were held as follows:
• Swaziland from March 24 to 28; Liberia from April 28 to May 2.
• Running concurrently with the Roving Seminars were technical missions to the IP Offices as follows:
• The Intellectual Property Office of The Kingdom of Swaziland from March 27 to 28, Mbabane, Swaziland;
• The Liberia Intellectual Property Office (LIPO) from April 28 to May 2, Monrovia, Liberia;
• The objectives of these technical missions were various and included to conduct practical training on processing of ARIPO applications (receipt, transmittal, filling in applications, notifications) under the Banjul Protocols; discussing challenges faced by the office in processing ARIPO applications in general and those applications designating the Member State with the responsible officers
• A brochure titled, "Procedure for filing an application for registration of a mark at the ARIPO Office is distributed to users.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

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Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied

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Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)

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Other activities

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III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

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Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

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Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.

• The ARIPO Journal is published monthly and is available in print and in electronic format

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases

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Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

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Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

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Other sources

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IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

• The POLITE Database
• Internal e-mail system
• Facsimile

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

• PCs and Laptops, Network printers, Photocopiers, Scanners, Servers

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

• POLITE Database

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

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Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

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Other matters

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V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

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Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

• A Library is available. It has literature published by the Office and from cooperating partners like the WIPO, EPO, EAPO, UK-IPO, JPO, KIPO, ROSPATENT, SIPO
• Currently, officers can access the library online public access catalogue (OPAC) via the Office intranet
• The library management software is the Liberty3 software

Publications related to different business procedures and trademark information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

• The Anderson Ray Zikonda Library is available and stocks literature by the ARIPO office and also stock from other IP Offices and Organizations like the WIPO, EPO, EAPO, UK-IPO, JPO, KIPO, ROSPATENT, SIPO and others
• It also has a collection of textbooks to support activities of the ARIPO Academy.
• Currently, officers can access the library online public access catalog (OPAC) via the Office intranet
• The library management software is the Liberty3 software

Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

• IP awareness campaigns though public lectures at Harare Institute of Technology, National University of Science and Technology, Chinhoyi University of Technology

• ARIPO participated and gave a lecture at the First Research and Intellectual EXPO from September 3 to 6, Harare, Zimbabwe

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

• Training Workshop for Heads of Police Academies of the Member States from July 9 to 11

• Regional Workshop on Human Resource Development of Patent/Trademark Agents from ARIPO Member States and Observer States from October 27 to 28

• Workshop on Access to Scientific and Technical Information for Technological Capacity Building and Product Branding for Goods of Export Interest for English Speaking Least Developed Countries, from  October 21 to 24

Other activities

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VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

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International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

• Trademark information is published in the ARIPO Journal and on CD-ROMs for distribution to Member States and Cooperating partners.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information

• ARIPO participated and exhibited at the 136^th Annual Meeting of INTA, from May 10 to 14, in Hong Kong, China

• Canada Africa Business Summit from September 15 to 18, Toronto, Canada

• The World Intellectual Property Congress of AIPPI from September 14 to 17, Toronto, Canada

•  Meetings at the Office for the Harmonization of Internal Market (OHIM)

• Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF 2014) from April 22 to 26, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Assistance to developing countries

• In the form of training of Trademark agents on the ARIPO procedures
• Scholarship to study for the Masters in Intellectual Property Degree at Africa University in Zimbabwe

Other activities

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VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

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