EU launches Helpdesk for assisting European companies to protect IP rights in Africa

The Africa Intellectual Property (IP) SME Helpdesk is an online helpdesk operational from 21 October 2021, which has been developed by the European Union to guide European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on how creating, protecting, utilising, administering and enforcing intellectual property rights (IPR) across Africa.

The Africa IP SME Helpdesk is the latest of a series of helpdesks created by the European Union to guide European companies to protect their Intellectual Property Rights in specific regional areas.

After China, Europe, India, Latin America and South-East Asia (all accessible via a single web page), the Africa IP SME Helpdesk aims at providing advice to European companies on how to protect their key IP assets in Africa by offering them tailored information and services on Intellectual Property protection and IP rights enforcement in the various African countries.

A group of Intellectual Property experts can be contacted via the portal so that they will provide free-of-charge answers to IP-related questions within a maximum of 3 working days.

In addition, the portal hosts a page with links to all the organisations administering Industrial Property Rights in the various African countries and will offer a series of training courses, updated IP news and information, as well as other online resources. Read the Africa IP SME Helpdesk brochure here.