| Description: |
The objective of the workshop was to assist ARIPO to have exchanges between practicing patent agents in order to find the best ways and means to improve the quality of the current business procedures before ARIPO, and to discuss initiatives that could be implemented to improve the quality of their services to meet the needs of IP system users.
In the workshop, the participants expressed needs for training on patent drafting, which will help them go the extra mile for their clients to protect IP and open up the industry in their countries (see mission report attached). Similar requests from participants were expressed in other workshops and seminars organized in Africa.
To respond to these requests, it is proposed to organize a WIPO Patent Drafting Course for Patent Agents from the Member States and Observer States of ARIPO, which comprises an in situ session at the ARIPO headquarters, Harare, Zimbabwe, from September 7 to 11, 2015 and a follow-up session via e-mail communication from September 14 to October 9, 2015. During the follow-up session, participants will be given patent drafting exercises (homework) to be submitted to the experts via e-mail. They will receive their drafts duly corrected by the experts. Further, the experts will be available for questions concerning patent drafting from the participants via-e-mail during the follow-up period. |