African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO）Website
African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO）Website: http://www.aripo.org
African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO, formerly African Regional Industri al Property Organization) was founded under the Lusaka Agreement in 1976 with its headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe and official website http://www.aripo.org/. It celebrates its 50th founding anniversary in 2026 and currently has 22 African member states dominated by English-speaking African nations. As an intergovernmental regional IP body, ARIPO governs full-spectrum IP rights including patents, trademarks, industrial designs, plant varieties, copyright and traditional knowledge under the Harare Protocol, Banjul Protocol and Arusha Protocol, adopting a flexible filing system allowing applicants to select target member states for protection via a single application. Cooperating closely with WIPO, CNIPA, JPO and other global IP authorities, ARIPO advances Patent Prosecution Highway programmes, IP talent training and launches free regional IP database. It devotes to empowering local SMEs, boosting African music copyright industry, optimizing agricultural plant variety protection and coordinating continental IP legal frameworks to fuel indigenous innovation and intra-African trade growth across the continent.
