Zimbabwe

At a meeting in Harare, the 7th OAPI/ARIPO Joint Commission met to discuss renewed and deepening cooperation between the two African regional Intellectual Property Organisations. A social media post by ARIPO indicated that the Commission started with an Experts Meeting to develop a 2024-2025 Work Plan detailing strategic areas of cooperation between the two organisations. […]

Cabinet ministers of the Zimbabwean government considered and approved the establishment of a Deeds, Companies, and Intellectual Property Authority of 6th June 2023, which is to be a semi-autonomous entity. Previously, in October 2022, the Cabinet had approved principles that sought to separate the Company and Intellectual Property section from the Department of Deeds. Cabinet […]

The Zimbabwean cabinet has approved the principles of the Companies and Intellectual Property Office of Zimbabwe Bill. The approval of the principles of the Companies and Intellectual Property Office of Zimbabwe Bill by cabinet was announced on 11 October 2022. The Bill will provide for the establishment of the Companies and Intellectual Property Office of […]

On 11 October 2022 the Zimbabwe government approved principles to the Companies and Intellectual Property Office of Zimbabwe Bill. The Bill aims to speed up ongoing support for innovation and creativity as Zimbabwe works toward Vision 2023-compliant service delivery and ease of doing business. It was announced that the Bill will provide for the establishment […]

CLICK HERE TO VIEW JUDGEMENT This is an appeal decision relating to Cairns Foods Limited and Netrade Marketing, two companies in the business of producing and marketing food products, in particular, fruit jam. Cairns Foods extensively used its SUN and device label trade mark in respect of jam products for over 50 years and has […]

In accordance with the new finance law[1], a 19% Valued Added Tax is to be added on professional fees with effect from 1 January 2022. Therefore, all the IP matters in Algeria filed on or after 1 January 2022 and all pending matters that will be completed on or after the said date will be […]

In October 2021, the Industrial Property Automated System (IPAS) crashed, and this caused a devastating ripple effect on all matters at the Registry. The IPAS system has now been replaced and is now fully functional. Delays are however expected, particularly with clearing the backlog. Practitioners are looking forward to the Registry resuming normal operations[1]. [1] […]

Operations at the Zimbabwean Registry took a devastating blow in October 2021 when the Industrial Property Automated System (IPAS) crashed. The already strained capacity of the Registry was severely impacted by this, but things are starting to look up as the system has now been replaced and is once again up and running. While delays […]

Although the Zimbabwean Registry has welcomed the fact that its Industrial Property Automated System (IPAS) is up and running again, the Registry’s operations were severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as ZIPO is now running on a limited staff complement. The Controller of Patents, Trade Marks & Industrial Designs has however assured practitioners that the […]

Filing Trade Marks through ARIPO as an Alternative Zimbabwe acceded to the Banjul Protocol on Marks (ARIPO) in 1997. As Zimbabwe has domesticated the Banjul Protocol, an ARIPO registration designating Zimbabwe is afforded the same rights as a national application. National applications filed at the Zimbabwe Registry often experience delays of some four to eight […]