Bemanya Twebaze elected director general of African IP body

Bemanya Twebaze has been elected as the director general of the African Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Bemanya, who currently serves as the registrar general of the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), was elected by the Administrative Council of ARIPO during its the 44th Session in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The session was held on November 17.

He becomes the fifth director general for the ARIPO.

ARIPO is an inter-governmental organization (IGO) established by the Lusaka Agreement of 1976 to facilitate the development and protection of Intellectual Property rights in member-states.

ARIPO facilitates cooperation among member states in intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, utility models, industrial designs, plant varieties, traditional knowledge, and folklore expression and geographical indications) matters, with the objective of pooling financial and human resources and seeking technological advancement for economic, social, technological, scientific and industrial development.

ARIPO has 20 member states, namely: Botswana, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe.

Others are Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working closely with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Uganda Missions in different African member countries, was instrumental in securing victory for the Ugandan candidate, reads the official statement.

This historical election of a Ugandan to serve as director general of the African Intellectual Property body comes in the wake of Uganda's adoption of a National Intellectual Property Policy to support the existing legal regime and to further generate, protect, commercialize, utilize and enforce Intellectual Property in Uganda.