Office Launches online Trademark filling system
Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched an online trademark filling system on December 21, 2018 at EIPO after they had inked an agreement to modernize the infrastructure of the intellectual property system in Ethiopia.
EIPO’s Director General Ermias Yemanebrhan said in his remarks the baseline advantage of using online trademark filling system is changing the culture of doing businesses relaying on paper works which led us to slow and in efficient service providing. Thus, the system enables the office to provide speedy and efficient service and can double the 2500 trademark applications receive per annum, he added.
WIPO’s Digitization Project Director Hisham Fayed listed a number of benefits EIPO and its customers or trademark agents get from the online trademark filling system. The technology enables the applicants /trademark agents to avoid middle man, this in turn will facilitate as a major tool for transparency, he added. The system will be functional in EIPO’s branch offices for now but by the end of 2019 it will be fully functional throughout the nation, Mr. Fayed emphasized.
