Following on from Part 1 of the Madrid is here to stay post, part 2 of this series delves into one the questions that clients frequently ask in relation to international registrations, "is it safe to rely on your IR’s designations in Africa?" Despite the fact that there have been numerous designations of African member states, the practical fact of the matter is that the enforceability of international registrations (IRs) in Africa is still very much uncertain and untested in many countries. Based on various factors, including the legal history of the various member states (for example, whether the country is a civil or common law country), legislation, regulations and practices in place in
From Tuesday, 4 April 2017, trademark owners who have validated their trademarks will be able to register matching domain names with the .africa extension. This sunrise period will run for 60 days until 2 June 2017. In order to register a .africa extension during the sunrise period, your trade mark needs to be validated using either the Trademark Clearing House or the Mark Validation System. At the end of the sunrise period the applicant with the highest ranking will be awarded the .africa extension. The trade mark clearing house is a centralized database of verified trademarks, that is connected to each and every new Top Level Domain (TLD) that will launch. A brand owner who wishes to regi
