March 29, 2022
In 2021, WIPO completed a digitization project for IP documents (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and utility models) of the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) of Botswana in cooperation with the CIPA and with financing from the Funds-In-Trust (FIT) Japan Industrial Property Global.
The objectives of this project were: to accelerate the administrative/examination processes in the IP office; to improve accessibility to IP information; to enhance IP office’s capability in delivering professional service; to enhance system usage for back-office activities; to improve quality of service in a cost-effective manner; and to improve IP process governance, transparency, and accountability by making all file info easily accessible and available in digital format.
About 40,000 paper files of the CIPA across all domains were scanned and indexed in this project.
In 2017, WIPO already completed a data capture project to verify and validate the CIPA’s data also under the support of the FIT Japan IP Global.