Flashback: Hon. Garmai Koboi, Director General of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office speaks at the celebration of the World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2024.
LIPO Director General Off to High-Level IP Conference in Cape Verde
Monrovia, Liberia – June 4, 2024: The Director General of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office (LIPO), Hon. Garmai Koboi, has departed the country to participate in a high-level intellectual property conference in Praia, Cape Verde.
The conference, scheduled from June 6 to June 8, convenes all heads of IP offices from the 22 member states of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) to discuss developments, share best practices, and adopt a more coherent approach to deploying technical assistance from the World Intellectual Property Organisation and other partners.
At the conference, Hon. Koboi, who holds a master’s in Intellectual Property from the African University in Zimbabwe, is expected to contribute significantly to the discourse, including sharing best practices and experiences in intellectual property rights administration and management.
“This conference is a unique opportunity to engage with my counterparts across the ARIPO member states and explore avenues for enhancing Liberia’s intellectual property systems,” says Hon. Koboi, whose appearance at the conference is a first, having been appointed Director General of LIPO about three months ago.
As part of Hon. Koboi’s activities at the two-day conference is a series of sideline meetings, including one with the ARIPO Director General Bemanya Twebaze to secure technical support for the administration of intellectual property rights in Liberia. High on Hon. Koboi’s agenda is the development of regulations on copyright, industrial property, and IP enforcement; the development of a Copyright and Industrial Property Manual of Examining Procedure; and the development of various types of industrial property and copyright licensing contracts, among others.
According to Hon. Koboi, obtaining technical support for the development of comprehensive IP regulations and procedures is a top priority of “her administration’s” effort to effectively and efficiently protect and enforce IP rights across the country.
“Securing technical support for the development of robust IP regulations is crucial for enhancing Liberia’s capacity to generate, protect, and enforce IP rights effectively and efficiently. This support will significantly bolster our administration’s capabilities,” Hon. Koboi said.
The Praia conference, which is being jointly organized by WIPO and ARIPO, has become an annual event that provides a platform for heads of IP offices to discuss IP-related developments in the ARIPO Member States as well as to adopt a coherent and efficient approach to implementing technical assistance offered by WIPO and other partners.
In its third edition, the conference aims to also promote cooperation and dialogue with ARIPO among member states in the spirit of sharing best practices and experiences in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) administration and management in the region.
