Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ncube, Caroline B.

Titel

Intellectual Property in the African Continental Free Trade Area

Ist Teil von

• Intellectual Property Law in Africa, 2023, p.211-233

Auflage

2

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This chapter outlines the development, negotiation and adoption of the IP Protocol. It contextualises these with the general trajectory of the AfCFTA, so it includes an overview of the developmental underpinnings of the AfCFTA, then explains the role and function of AfCFTA institutions. Then it briefly sets out provisions and assesses them against the AU's stated goals for a continental IP system. Specifically, it examines whether the protocol consolidates a collective African vision for IP that furthers developmental goals, contributes to the protection and promotion of human rights and generally furthers the public interest. This chapter sets the context by outlining the general trajectory of the AfCFTA, an overview of the developmental underpinnings of the AfCFTA, then explains the role and function of AfCFTA institutions. The negotiations for the Protocol on IPRs were conducted by the Committee on IP, established by the COM at its fifth meeting on 3 May 2021. The committee undertook the negotiations in accordance with its terms of reference, the AU Statement of the Objectives and Guiding Principles for Negotiating Continental Free Trade Area and the modalities for the negotiations of the AfCFTA Protocol on IPRs. Following this, the 17th Extraordinary Assembly, held 20-25 November 2022 in Niamey, Niger, noted the adoption of the protocol by the COM and requested the STC on Justice and Legal Affairs to consider it at an extraordinary session in January 2023, following which further adoption processes would commence. Intellectual property impacts development and the preamble's foregrounding of a developmental approach to IP is welcome.