International Activities

Attendance as JIPA Speakers at WIPO Meetings in Morocco, Zimbabwe and South Africa - WIPO Japan Funds -

Japan Funds-In-Trust for Industrial Property-Africa & LDCs held intellectual property meetings in three African countries, namely, Morocco, Zimbabwe and South Africa, in October 2014 as part of its support projects for least developed countries. From JIPA, President Kazushi Takemoto (Suntory HD) participated in the meeting in Morocco, and Vice President Yoshihiro Suzuki (Denso) and Vice-Chair Takio Fukumoto (Honda) of the Second International Affairs Committee participated in the meetings in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
It was the first time that JIPA had dispatched its speakers to the above three African countries.

At these meetings, JIPA members presented the cases observed in and needs heard from the Japanese industry, and carried out an in-depth debate in the panel discussion in line with the themes of the respective meetings. Also, JIPA exchanged opinions with officials of the African intellectual property offices before and after each meeting.

1. Casablanca, Morocco (October 21-23)
   1) "Regional Policy Dialogue on the Importance of Elaboration and Implementation of National Policies for Intellectual Property and Promotion of Research, Innovation and Competitiveness" (at Hotel Imperial Casablanca)
   -In a session titled "Reinforce the Indispensable Public/Private Partnership for Competitiveness," Mr. Takemoto presented the activities JIPA carried out to fight against counterfeit products and its efforts to promote collaboration between industry and academia.
2. Harare, Zimbabwe (October 27-28)
   1) "Regional Workshop on Human Resource Development of Patent/Trademark Agents for ARIPO Member States and Observer States" (at the conference room of ARIPO)
   -The participants engaged in discussions on the user needs in relation to the development of intellectual property experts in the private sector, and in particular, the policy measures as needed to meet the demand
   for improvement of quality of such experts.

   2) Exchange of opinions with Mr. Dos Santos, Director General, and Mr. Kiige, Director Industrial Property, ARIPO
   - Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Fukumoto obtained the following information regarding ARIPO's activities: ARIPO is committed to the development of human resources, focusing on education for judges and police officials; it holds traveling seminars for its member states, in which a few of its officials and local instructors serve as speakers; and it accepts a few examiners from Korea and China.

3. Pretoria, South Africa (October 29-30)
   1) "Colloquium on Building Respect for IP for Members of the Judiciary of the Common Law Countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)"
   - The participants engaged in discussions on a wide range of topics, including the scale and impact of counterfeit and pirated products, evidence collection in criminal and civil proceedings, and issuance of provisional orders, and reviewed the trends in the court rulings recently handed down on cases involving IP infringement on the Internet, which have been on the rise.

   2) Exchange of opinions with the Southern African Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC)

• Back