WIPO National Training Program on Examination for Patent Examiners of the Angolan Institute of Industrial Property (IAPI)

April 23, 2024

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) organized a national training program with the Angolan Institute of Industrial Property (IAPI) with support by the WIPO Funds-in-Trust Japan (FIT/JP) from March 4 to 6, 2024 at the premises of the Angolan Institute of Industrial Property (IAPI) in Luanda, Angola.

The training program aimed at developing and improving capacities of the IAPI on patent examination. It covered substantive patent examination procedures with hands-on exercises based on actual patent applications.

About the training program

Mr. Taegeun Kim, Senior Program Officer, Cooperation on Examination and Training Section, PCT International Cooperation Division of WIPO, who coordinated, organized and delivered the training program, covered substantive patent examination procedures such as prior art search, assessment of patentability requirements and writing communications to the applicants, as well as certain aspects of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), All participants who attended the training program found the lectures informative and helpful and engaged actively in the discussions and exercises.

One of the additional highlights of the three-day training program was a lecture given by Mr. Keisuke Seki, IP Director at JETRO Dubai and IP Attaché for Middle East and Africa of the Japan Patent Office (JPO). He taught the IAPI examiners on how to understand, search and examine pharmaceutical inventions. The participants could learn unique features in the technical field and how to deal with them with rich actual case examples.

It is anticipated that participants will apply their knowledges and experiences to their patent examinations. The post training program survey showed very high satisfaction by the participants and the IAPI hoped for continuous support to further improve its patent prosecution capabilities.