The Republic of Mauritius became the 21st member state of the Harare Protocol on Patents, Industrial Designs, and Utility Models by deposit of its Instrument of Accession on 27 May 2025. The Acting Controller of the Industrial Property Office, Mr. Ranjive Beergaunot, presented the Instrument of Accession to the ARIPO Director General, Mr. Bemanya Twebaze, during the 4th Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Conference (HIPOC).

Mauritius has made significant strides in recent years to modernize its IP framework, including accession to the Lusaka Agreement (which established the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, ARIPO) on 25 September 2020, entry into force on 31 January 2022 of its Industrial Property Act of 2019 and Industrial Property Regulations of 2022 and accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty on 15 December 2022 (which came into force on 15 March 2023). Similar to the other ARIPO member states, Mauritius retains its national intellectual property law, and from 27 August 2025, protection is available to Applicants via either (i) direct national filing or (ii) designation of Mauritius in an ARIPO Patent, Industrial Design, or Utility Model application.

For International PCT patent applications entering the ARIPO regional phase, it will be possible to designate Mauritius based on PCT applications with an international filing date on or after 27 August 2025.

An ARIPO Patent, Industrial Design, or Utility Model confers on its Proprietor the same rights in each designated state as would be respectively conferred by a national Patent, Industrial Design, or Utility Model. The 21 contracting states to the Harare Protocol are Botswana, Cape Verde, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius (from 27 August 2025), Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sào Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.