ETHIOPIA: Increase in official publication fees

The Ethiopian Press Agency announced a sharp increase in publication fees in response to declining economic conditions in the country.  The Ethiopian economy has been adversely affected by the ongoing civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, and international developments, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Press Agency’s new tariff affects all publications, including intellectual property and trade mark related publications made for opposition purposes, renewals, recordals, etc.

Costs for most standard-sized publications have risen by approximately 40-50%.  For lengthier publications taking up more than half of a newspaper page, costs could rise to 100-200%.

Our colleagues in Addis Ababa are engaging the Press Agency directly to attempt to negotiate more reasonable prices for IP related publications.

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Authority (EIPA) allows for the publication of trade mark and other IP notices in the Amharic language only. To save on publication costs, stakeholders have the option of only publishing notices in the Amharic language, to avoid the duplication of costs that would result from publishing notices in the English language as well.

For any information or queries in this regard, please contact africaip@adamsadams.com