What does intellectual property system in ethiopia look like [Expert Review]

Intellectual property law deals with the rules for securing and enforcing legal rights to inventions, designs, and artistic works. … Patents give inventors the right to use their product in the marketplace or to profit by transferring that right to someone else.

The intellectual property (IP) system relates to rights and obligations, as well as privileges and incentives--all rooted from the creation and protection of IP, which “refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names, and images used in commerce.”

Intellectual Property – refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images. Intellectual Property rights provide protection for creations and inventions, to enable creators and inventors to earn recognition and financial benefit from their work.

• Patents.
• Domain names.
• Industrial design.
• Confidential information.
• Inventions.
• Moral rights.
• Database rights.
• Works of authorship.

Copyright is protected for the life time as long as the author lives plus 50 years after his/her death. The rights of performers and producers of sound recording extend to 50 years and the rights of broadcasting organizations extend to 20 years.

Ethiopia is neither a Contracting Party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property nor to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). More legal information about intellectual property-related laws and regulations of Ethiopia can be found on WIPO Lex. Ethiopia does not have an Online Register.

Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets are valuable assets of the company and understanding how they work and how they are created is critical to knowing how to protect them.

IPR provide certain exclusive rights to the inventors or creators of that property, in order to enable them to reap commercial benefits from their creative efforts or reputation. There are several types of intellectual property protection like patent, copyright, trademark, etc.

Rights. Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets.

1. The main objective of intellectual property law is to encourage innovation and to provide incentives for innovation by granting protection to inventors that will allow them to recover research and development investments and reap the benefits of their inventions for a limited period of time.

Intellectual Property is traditionally divided into two categories: (i) Industrial Property which includes patents for inventions, trademarks and service marks, industrial designs and Geographical Indications and (ii) Copyright which covers literary and artistic works.

What is intellectual property? Intellectual property refers to any intellectual creation, such as literary works, artistic works, inventions, designs, symbols, names, images, computer code, etc. Intellectual property law exists in order to protect the creators and covers areas of copyright, trademark law, and patents.

IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create.

1. A notarized document containing a description of the invention, one or more claims, an abstract and where necessary drawings.( the document has to be translated in to English)
2. a notarized and authenticated power of attorney to the Patent agent or patent attorney in Ethiopia.

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

Ethiopia has not signed a number of major IPR treaties, such as the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) copyright treaty, the Berne Convention for Literary and Artistic Works, the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, and ...

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WIPO currently has 193 member states, including 190 UN member states and the Cook Islands, Holy See and Niue; Palestine has permanent observer status. The only non-members, among the countries recognised by the UN are the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and South Sudan.

WIPO's two main objectives are (i) to promote the protection of intellectual property worldwide; and (ii) to ensure administrative cooperation among the intellectual property Unions established by the treaties that WIPO administers.

Patent. A patent is used to prevent an invention from being created, sold, or used by another party without permission. Patents are the most common type of intellectual property rights that come to people's minds when they think of intellectual property rights protection.