The European Patent Office, which grants patents valid in up to 44 European countries, and the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office signed their first two-year work plan, covering 2019 to 2021, during a visit by a senior Ethiopian delegation to Munich in late June 2019. The plan puts into practice a “reinforced partnership” agreed in April, the European office said on 1 July.
European Patent Office President António Campinos and Ermias Yemanebirhan, director-general of the Ethiopian office, signed the plan. Ethiopia became the second country outside the European office’s membership to sign such a partnership, after South Africa in 2018.
Under the agreement, the European office will spend the next five years helping the Ethiopian office build the skills to examine national patent applications using European tools and standards. The two offices also agreed to explore a validation agreement, which would let inventors extend European patent applications and granted European patents to Ethiopia, and to set up a platform where innovators from both regions can work together.
“Working together we can further develop Ethiopia’s national patent system, benefiting both local companies and our global users,” Campinos said. Ermias called the plan “a milestone in the EIPO’s endeavours to enhance and modernise the patent system in Ethiopia and integrate the country into the international IP system for the betterment of local innovation and technology transfer.”
The Ethiopian office, based in Addis Ababa with about 200 staff, was automating its work and launching online filing. According to the European office, it was also preparing to join the Paris Convention, the main treaty on industrial property; the Madrid Protocol, which covers international trademark registration; and the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which lets inventors file one international patent application. The European office cited United Nations trade figures showing that Ethiopia attracted more than $4 billion in foreign direct investment in the year to July 2018.
Sources: European Patent Office