Registro de Marcas en ARIPO

ARIPO Trademark Office

• Name of Office: The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)
• Address: 11 Natal Road Belgravia, Harare, Zimbabwe
• Phone number: +263 4 794065 - 68

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), formerly African Regional Industrial Property Organization, is an intergovernmental organization for cooperation among African states in patent and other intellectual property matters. Its 19 member states are mostly English-speaking countries; however, only 10 states are covered by the ARIPO trademark registration (Botswana, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Uganda).

Filing your trademark in ARIPO is the best option to cover these countries. At the same time, it is still possible to file your trademark country by country.

The Trademark Office applies the current version of the Nice Classification, you can find acceptable goods and services in this link. However, in Malawi and Uganda service marks are not approved. 

How To Order

1. Fill out a simple online form in this link
2. A Trademark Account Manager will contact you within 24 hours
3. Prepare the necessary documents 
4. The trademark will be filed within 5 business day
5. We will keep you posted on the progress & inform you when the trademark registers

Any questions? Contact us at [email protected]

Services

We offer the following services in ARIPO:

• Trademark Search (wordmark only)
• Trademark Registration
• Trademark renewal
• Trademark oppositions
• Defenses in case of oppositions or objections/office actions in ARIPO
• Trademark assignment
• Change of name/Change of Address

If you are interested in any of these services, please do not hesitate to contact us.

What is required to register a trademark in ARIPO?

You must be represented by a local trademark attorney, our attorney will represent you in this process.

• 1. Name of the applicant
• 2. Address of the applicant
• 3. Description of products/services the applicant commercializes
• 4. Details of the trademark
• 5. An original Power of Attorney

What is registrable as a trademark?

• Words 
• Letters and numerals 
• Devices (fancy devices, drawings and symbols).
• Coloured Marks (words, devices and any combination thereof in colour).
• Sounds 
• Olfactory Marks (associated with a certain fragrance).  
• Invisible Signs (that can be recognised by touch i.e. a sun ray or moon)
• Three Dimensional Signs (these are marks indicating the shape of goods or their packaging). 

Trademark registration in ARIPO: Procedure

Depends on each state, the general procedure is the following:

1. A formal examination

2. ARIPO notifies the designated states of the trademark

3. The states analyze the trademark and notify ARIPO if they accept the trademark

4. The trademark is published for opposition in the states which accepted the trademark

5. The trademark is registered after the opposition period of 3 months if there is no opposition

Trademark registration: Duration 

A trademark registration is valid for 10 years from date of application. The registration is renewable for periods of 10 years. In most member countries, you must use your trademark after registration. If the trademark is not used within 5 years from registration it may be cancelled.