adminZANZIBAR.—– The Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation Project in Africa (AfrIPI), the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) are holding the Module B curriculum training of the ARIPO Patent Examination Training (ARPET).
The programme ran from yesterday to Friday.
The training is taking place at Hotel Verde in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Under the ARPET programme, AfrIPI, ARIPO and the EPO have joined forces to train patent examiners from the national patent offices of ARIPO Member and Observer States.
The training will enable participants to use patents as a source of information and build their search and examination capacity.
It will also ensure the timely granting of high-quality patents and stimulate the filing of patent applications in Africa — that has recorded an average of 0,6 percent of the global patent applications over the years.
The training programme aims to develop the knowledge and skills of patent examiners of ARIPO Member and Observer States, specifically Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Although empowered through their national laws to provide search and examination of patent application services, most ARIPO Member States and Observer States lack the capacity, knowledge and skills to perform timely and high-quality searches and examinations of patent applications for their local constituents.
Therefore, the knowledge and skills of these examiners must be developed through continuous training on patent search and examination topics to improve their skill base, substantive capacities and efficiencies.
The EPO and ARIPO launched the ARPET programme in September 2021 through the introduction of Module A training.
This year, the ARPET programme will focus on Module B — Advanced Patent Examination. Under Module B, participants will be divided into three groups: Engineering, Biotechnology/Chemistry and Portuguese-speaking examiners.
Their training, based on competency-based framework and curriculum to train examiners, covers topics such as conducting timely, high-quality searches and examinations of local applications, implementing international and EPO procedures, and second filing practices, among others.
“Through the ARIPO Patent Examination Training programme, AfrIPI aims to support the development and strengthening of patent search and examination in Africa.
“The aim is to be achieved by improving the capacity, knowledge and skills of patent examiners in Africa so that they are better equipped to improve their skill base and substantive capacities and efficiencies and to carry out patent examinations in accordance with international best practices,” said Beata Suwala, AfrIPI representative. — AFRIPI.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter