Africa intellectual property decisions and legislative reforms round-up 2020

Abstract

In 2020, courts in individual African countries delivered a series of important rulings in the IP field. There were also significant legislative reforms in IP laws in some parts of the African continent. This contribution provides a round-up of the most significant court decisions and legislative reforms issued in the period 1 January–31 December 2020. The analysis is made in relation to different IP rights (IPRs), starting with relevant decisions of courts on the African continent before moving to legislative reforms and developments across Africa: In the case of court decisions, each selected decision is presented according to the following template: As Africa is a continent with 54 countries, each with distinct laws and legal systems, collecting decisions of national courts across the continent is quite difficult. We have thus been unable to cover all 54 countries in Africa and have limited ourselves mostly to jurisdictions where each of the contributors practices in.