Enforcement of IP Rights in Kenya Workshop
- Nairobi, Kenya, 21 May 2011
On May 17-20, 2011,
representatives from US and Kenyan agencies gathered in Nairobi for a four day
event, “Enforcement of IP Rights in Kenya: An Interagency Approach with Private
Sector Coordination”.
At the
invitation of the US Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya,
Tracy Faustin participated and presented ICC’s Business Action to Stop
Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) initiative to the workshop. The primary objective of this
mission was to develop a BASCAP – Kenya Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) work
plan, support BASCAP members in attendance (BAT, Diageo, HP, Microsoft, Pfizer,
P&G, Unilever), establish key US government contacts for future projects
and assess ACA’s effectiveness as an agency since meeting the group in October
2010. ACA is currently working on a public awareness campaign, and recently
used an adapted version of the BASCAP public awareness toolkit "I Buy
Real" for World Anti-Counterfeiting Day, June 2011.
By promoting an
interagency approach among the key partner agencies and the private sector, the
workshop opened up collective discussion of the situation and contributed to
establishing a framework to help deter the flow of counterfeit and pirate goods
to the Kenyan market. The result was an increased capacity for identification
and interdiction of counterfeit goods by the ACA and its key agency partners,
as well as an enhanced policy and operational coordination amongst agencies
with public-private sector cooperation.
The event was
organized by the US Department of Commerce (USDOC), Kenya Anti-Counterfeit
Agency, US Department of Justice (USDOJ), and US Embassy Nairobi in conjunction
with the Kenya Copyright Board (KeCoBo) and Kenya Industrial Property Institute
(KIPI). Programme highlights included discussion of the socio-economic impact
and health and safety issues in the consumer goods and creative industries, the
role and mandate of ACA constituent member agencies and their impact on the
protection of intellectual property rights, presentations by the agencies and
the private sector, discussion on the impediments to enforcement in Kenya and
the legal and administrative framework of an interagency approach, and border
enforcement best practices.
For more information on the event, follow the links
below: Programme Objectives Success
Notice -
HP
For further information, please contact
Tracy FAUSTIN
Project Manager, BASCAP
Tel:
+33 (0)1 49 53 28 27
tracy.faustin@iccwbo.org