Emerging IP - March 2025

EMERGING IP

March 2025

REGIONAL UPDATES

Africa

Libya Trade Mark Office Suspends Processing New Applications

On 6 March 2025, the Libyan Ministry of Economy and Trade issued an official decision to temporarily suspend the processing of new trade mark applications, with effect from 5 March 2025 to 10 April 2025. The decision is noted to exclude oppositions, appeals and renewals.
 
The Ministry has also asked agents and applicants to respect the suspension period.
 
Naturally, the question arises as to how filing priority would be determined once trade mark applications become possible. We have no guidance on this at the time of writing. However, where possible, applicants who had planned filing during the suspension period could consider reliance on Paris Convention, perhaps filing in another Convention country first, and then claiming priority from the foreign filing once the filing window re-opens. Otherwise, since the Trade Mark Office is expected to receive a high volume of applications once filings become possible, applicants could work towards having filings ready to proceed at the relevant time, noting that late filing of supporting documents is generally not possible in Libya.   
 
This development underscores a drive to address the administrative challenges faced by the Libyan Trade Mark Office. Businesses seeking trade mark protection in Libya should monitor further updates. Our renewals department is available to assist through our contact e-mail address: renewals.mena.tm@cwbip.com

Nigeria Joins International Plant Variety Protection Union

Nigeria has recently joined the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed Nigeria’s instrument of accession to the 1991 Act of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, with the accession taking effect on March 27, 2025.

Welcoming Nigeria’s accession, the Acting Registrar of the Nigerian Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Office, Mr. Folarin Sunday Okelola stated: “By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.1 billion, with Africa—particularly Nigeria—experiencing one of the highest growth rates. As food demand rises, providing farmers with access to high-quality seeds is crucial to ensuring food security. In acceding to UPOV, plant variety protection will drive the continuous development of improved, high-yielding, and climate-resilient crop varieties, benefiting both farmers and the broader agricultural and horticultural sectors.”

UPOV is an intergovernmental organization based in Geneva, dedicated to promoting the development of new plant varieties. The UPOV Convention provides the basis for plant breeders to receive fair remuneration for their work. The UPOV system provides the legal and technical basis for international cooperation in this field and aims to increase the number and availability of improved plant varieties for farmers and growers, through public-private partnerships and investments in agricultural value chains.

UPOV has 80 members covering 99 countries:

African Intellectual Property Organization, Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, European Union, Finland, France, Ghana, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Source: UPOV website

Eastern Europe

Georgia to Accede to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement

The National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) recently announced on its website that the Georgian Parliament approved the ratification of the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications on March 18, 2025. Georgia is expected to deposit its instrument of accession to the Geneva Act with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the near future.

The accession will allow Georgian applicants to protect their regional brands abroad as appellations of origin or geographical indications through a single application and upon payment of one set of fees. The scope of protection will be extended to cover 23 contracting states and two intergovernmental organizations that are parties to the Geneva Act – the European Union and the African Intellectual Property Organization.

The accession to the Geneva Act was preceded by a reform that Sakpatenti implemented with the support of the European Union, within the Twinning Project “Establishing Efficient Protection and Control System of Geographical Indications (GIs) in Georgia” aimed at the harmonization of local regulations with the Geneva Act.

At present, 39 appellations of origin and 31 geographical indications are registered in Georgia.

Source: Sakpatenti website

Slovenian Customs Detained EUR 2.5 Million Worth of Counterfeits in 2024

The number of customs detentions in Slovenia in 2024 was 777, while the number of detained items was 51,982, with a total estimated value of EUR 2.5 million. The numbers decreased from 2023, when there were 359,780 items detained on 709 occasions, estimated to be worth EUR 6.7 millYearion.

The table below shows the Slovenian Customs’ statistics on the detentions of IPR infringing goods for the period 2020-2024:

As in the previous years, the most prevalent counterfeit goods included clothes, footwear, accessories, audio/video equipment and toys.

Most of the counterfeits originated from China, Hong Kong and Turkey and arrived in Slovenia by sea and by mail. The goods arriving by sea were mostly intended for recipients in other EU countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia), while the counterfeits arriving by mail were meant for recipients in Slovenia and were mostly ordered online.

Blurb: The counterfeit goods included clothes, footwear, accessories, audio/video equipment and toys coming from China, Hong Kong and Turkey by sea and by mail.

By: Maja Žnidarič Plevnik

Serbia to Adopt its First AI Law

Serbia is in the process of adopting its first Law on Artificial Intelligence. As the first country in Southeast Europe to establish a comprehensive AI development framework, Serbia has positioned itself as a regional leader, a recognition further solidified through its presidency of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), a leading international organization focused on AI development, implementation and regulation.

The adoption of the Belgrade Ministerial Declaration on Artificial Intelligence in December 2024, supported by 44 EU and GPAI member states, marked a significant step forward in fostering an integrated partnership among the GPAI members by embracing AI technologies as drivers of economic and social progress, while reducing associated risks and ensuring benefits for people and the planet.

The adoption of the Law on Artificial Intelligence in Serbia could have very important implications for intellectual property protection and create further legal challenges. For instance, the emergence of generative AI systems has already raised the question whether AI-generated works can meet the requirements for copyright protection.

In the context of trademark law, AI has the potential to perform two contradictory functions:

• On the one hand, it can give rise to trademark infringement by generating content that violates pre-existing trademarks.
• On the other hand, it can serve as an effective tool for trademark management and monitoring, which enables detecting and preventing infringement.

Artificial intelligence represents an advanced stage in the evolution of digital technology and poses significant challenges for patent law as well, particularly affecting the patenting of software and computer-implemented inventions. 

By: Nada Milovic