WIPO and ARIPO sign MOU to expand cooperation

KARACHI (APP) - The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Francis Gurry, and his counterpart from the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), Gift H. Sibanda, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Friday in Geneva, to strengthen and expand cooperation between the two organisations.

The MOU covers traditional areas of cooperation relating to capacity building, as well as a special project to boost ARIPO’s patent information capacity.

In addition to reinforcing WIPO and ARIPO’s 30-year old collaboration, Mr. Gurry said today’s agreement will boost the capacity of ARIPO member states to provide the means for research institutes, universities and the private sector to capitalise on the wealth of technical information available in patent documents.