Design Registration ARIPO

Design registration in ARIPO

Here you can mandate us to obtain design protection in one or more member states of the ARIPO. We will prepare and file your design application in ARIPO and inform you about the progress of proceeding.

The design of a product is one of the decisive factors for its market success. It can become an important asset of your company, particularly if it is a bestseller. We protect your design and file a request for a registered industrial design in one or more member states of the ARIPO. Our offer includes the fees of the patent office for registration, publication and registration.

The African Regional Intellectual Property Office (ARIPO) has currently 19 states which are members of ARIPO. These are: Botswana, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

ARIPO cooperates with 12 further potential member states which are: Angola, Algeria, Burundi, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa and Tunisia.

ARIPO provides design protection in one or more member states with registered industrial design right which have the same effect as national design registrations.

A registered design right in ARIPO will be established through a registration.

The maximum term of protection in ARIPO is 10 years provided the registration is uohold by annual maintentance payments.

The first term of design protection in ARIPO will be 1 year calculated from the date of filing. In certain cases the date of filing starts 6 months before the actual application date, namely if an application for an industrial design was filed before in a foreign country but not longer than 6 months before the application in ARIPO and if the priority of this foreign application date for the new application in ARIPO was claimed.

The registered design in ARIPO is an unexamined industrial property right. Neither the office nor we will examine the novelty and individual characteristic of your design. Both, novelty and the individual characteristic of the design, will statutorily be presumed because of the registration. After registration everybody has the right to start an action for annulment in case he may give proof of lack of novelty and lack of individuality of the registered design.

Opposition cannot be filed by a third party in ARIPO during registration process.

In ARIPO multiple design application are not possible.

For the registration of a design in ARIPO you need:

-the area of protection naming one or more of the meber states Botswana, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

- the name of your design: (f.e. car fender „ALKU“, Artikel.-No.1234);

- drawings, photographs or other adequate graphic representations of the article embodying the industrial design only; views shall show your design in front of a neutral background, please provide us with black and white pictures or technical drawings reduced to the lines of the design without any further technical information that show the design views from all possible directions (bottom, top, left, right view etc.); please note that the protection will rest on what can be seen in the views only.

- contact details of the client;

- contact details of the to be registered owner of the design right and

- if the registered owner shall be a juristical person we need a copy of the commercial register;

- name of the natural person(s) who created the design; where the applicant is not the creator the request shall be accompanied by a statement justifying the right of the applicant to the registration of the industrial design.

- a short description - if possible - of the product/design, especially if the design has specific characteristics which can not to be seen in the views;

- in case of prior design application in a foreign country please provide a copy of the office letter stating the receipt of the filing, file number and name of the patent office.

If you engage us we will render the following services :

- Preparation of the filing including selection of the classes of goods (Locarno-classification);

- Examination of the images in regard to the formal requirements (we do not review if the design has novelty and individual characteristic);

- requesting additional documents or new images;

- legal advice with regard to the filing process and documents;

- sending the prepared filing details to you for review;

- Filing the application at patent office;

- Representation of the applicant in front of the office;

- Payment of the office fee (application fee, registration fee, publication fee);

- Transmission of office documents as well as the letter confirming the application;

- Legal advice in due time in order to enable you to extend the protection of your design patent to foreign countries by claiming the priority of the prior application;

- Receipt, checking and forwarding of the registration certificate (if available) and a copy of an extract from the register;

- Receipt and transmission of all documents sent from the patent office after the registration;

- docketing and deadline, renewal time monitoring.