Africa: The Gambia set to join the Banjul Protocol on Marks

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Africa: The Gambia set to join the Banjul Protocol on Marks

Sponsored by

spoor-fisher-400px.png
dan-roizer-gygpfmxgd1o-unsplash.jpg

Matthew Costard of Spoor & Fisher explains why the Gambia’s ‘British law’ legacy is a cause of concern for ARIPO trademarks

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) is one of Africa’s two regional IP registration systems. ARIPO enables IP owners to get protection for their rights in one or more member countries through a central filing together with a designation of the countries of interest. This is in contrast to the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI), which involves a single filing that automatically covers all the member countries.

The treaty that regulates ARIPO trademarks is the Banjul Protocol on Marks. Eleven countries can be covered through an ARIPO trademark registration (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe).

On May 4 2021, ARIPO announced that the Gambia will be the 12th trademark member country, and will join the Banjul Protocol on Marks with effect from August 3 2021. What this means is that as of August 3 2021, trademark owners will be able to designate the Gambia in an ARIPO trademark application.

Yet trademark owners should be wary. The Gambia is what is sometimes known as a ‘British law country’. The effect of this is that international treaties do not become part of the Gambian law until such time as they are specifically enacted in local legislation. The Banjul Protocol on Marks has not been incorporated in any legislation in the Gambia, and this means that any designation of the Gambia in an ARIPO trademark application will have no effect. Purported trademark registrations will be open to attack.

It is worth noting that there is a draft law in the Gambia that does incorporate the Banjul Protocol into the Gambian law (An Act to Repeal The Industrial Property Act 2007, see Section 61(13)). It is not known when this will come into effect, although local sources are hopeful that the bill will be tabled at the next sitting of the National Assembly and that it will be enacted before August 3 2021. Until such a time when the draft law is in force, the safest course for trademark owners will be to use the national trademark system.

 

Matthew CostardDirector, Spoor & FisherE: m.costard@spoor.co.uk  

 

 

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Alston & Bird acted for InterDigital, while Samsung was represented by Fish & Richardson, during the arbitration process
Powell Gilbert lawyers reveal how they navigated parallel EPO proceedings and collaborated with European peers to come out on top in the Nordic-Baltic Division’s first judgment
The firms posted increases in revenue and profit per equity partner, with both giving a nod to their IP expertise
EasyGroup, the owner of the easyJet airline, said in a press release that UK-based first-instance judges are “less experienced”, bringing a long-running debate back to the fore
A cross-practice team from Mayer Brown, which included members of the firm’s IP practice, advised on the deal
María Cecilia Romoleroux discusses the challenges she has faced in her career in IP and how she hopes to improve things for the next generation of women
Value-added services give in-house counsel the satisfaction that they are getting more value for money, while law firms get the opportunity to win more work
A team at Boies Schiller Flexner is advising shoe company Kizik and parent company HandsFree Labs in the dispute
Nokia’s latest enforcement actions against Geely and Transsion joining Via LA’s AAC pool were also among the top talking points
Benjamin Kelly, the firm’s fifth IP partner hire in a little over one year, has experience in patent and trade secret disputes involving complex technologies
Gift this article