Bringing you the latest news and views from across Africa.
When Daniel Montague Kisch opened a small patent agency in Pretoria in 1874, the telephone had not yet rung its first call and Edison’s incandescent bulb was still on the drawing board. A century-and-a-half later, the firm that now trades as KISCH IP stands at the heart of Africa’s innovation economy, guiding clients through a landscape dominated by generative artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.
In a landmark ruling, the South African Constitutional Court has taken a significant step toward inclusivity by granting blind and visually impaired individuals the right to access copyrighted works in accessible formats—without needing prior permission from copyright owners.
The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) has officially been integrated into the UPOV PRISMA electronic filing platform, enabling breeders to submit Plant Variety Protection (PVP) applications online under the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants.
June 2025 marks a pivotal moment in South Africa’s Intellectual Property and agricultural policy landscape with the official commencement of the 2018 Plant Breeders’ Rights Act.
On 10 June 2025, the Egyptian Intellectual Property Authority (EGIPA) issued Ministerial Decision No. 26 of 2025, introducing an increase in the official examination fees of patent applications in Egypt.