Kenya to host WIPO seminar in June

For the African region, Nairobi in Kenya will host WIPO’s meetings with heads of intellectual property offices in Africa from 10 to 11 June before conducting the seminar from 12 to 13 June.

Fifty-five African member countries are expected to attend the meeting, which will be limited to between 100 and 200 participants.

“Each seminar will be open in a plenary setting to introduce the objectives, the agenda and the modalities of discussion," Info Justice says. "WIPO experts will describe the L&E studies and typologies they have prepared with a focus on the region of the meeting.

"The discussion at the seminar will focus on among other things, copyright laws affecting libraries, museums and education, as well as background papers on museums and archives, and an interim report on education and distance learning.”

WIPO's deputy director-general for copyright and creative industries sector, Forbin Sylvie, said that member states should “come with a lot of background information of everything they have collected from their colleagues”.

“For that, we will send a list of questions that will allow member states to discuss with their colleagues, and gather experience and worries that you can raise to experts and participants.”

The intellectual property body has also released dates for capacity-building projects for professionals in the audiovisual sector, including musicians in Africa.

A workshop on National Patent Drafting will be held from 7 to 10 May 2019 in Lagos, Nigeria, while a regional seminar on the Patent Cooperation Treaty for Lusophone African Countries has been planned to run from 9 to 11 July in Luanda, Angola.

Last month, the organisation opened its first external office on the continent in Algeria to assist the global body in delivering its duties.