ISIPPE-1 Symposium
About 1st International Symposium on Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement
According to Moises Naim (2005), illicit trade is defined as a trade that infringes the rules, that is the laws, regulations, licenses, taxation system, embargoes and all the procedures that countries use to organize trade, protect their citizens, raise the standard of living and enforce codes of ethics. In other words, it is the production or distribution of a good or service that is considered illegal by a legislature. Illicit trade is of different forms which include counterfeit goods, pirated goods, sub-standard goods, uncustomed goods, undervalued goods, concealed goods, contraband goods, etc.
Illicit trade is a global phenomenon that continues to thrive despite numerous legislative and regulatory frameworks. Since the 1990s, illicit trade has increased seven times faster than legal trade. The IMF and World Bank estimate that the parallel economy represents 15- 20% of global GDP. The form of illicit trade that has recently attracted the attention of policymakers is trade which involves intellectual property right infringement.
The INTA-BASCAP (2017) estimate that the global economic value of counterfeit and pirated products was between USD 923 billion and USD 1.13 trillion in 2013 and this was estimated to reach USD 1.90 to USD 2.81 trillion by 2022.
The impact of IP infringement and illicit trade is enormous. It facilitates global crime which results in undesirable consequences in terms of the health and safety impact
on consumers and also in terms of discouraging investment and productivity.
The increase in intellectual property right infringements and illicit trade in general is viewed to be as a result of weak legislative and institutional frameworks. The World Trade Organization developed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization. It is a minimum standards agreement, which allows Members to provide more extensive protection of intellectual property if they so wish. Based on the TRIPS agreement, various countries have domesticated this law into their domestic laws and established IP registration and enforcement institutions.
Considering that the vice affects various sectors and are interrelated, various countries have developed a multi-agency approach in dealing with the vice. Therefore, sharing best practices will enrich global efforts in combatting the vice.
The ACA, a state corporation in the Kenya’s Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry (MITI) that is mandated to combat counterfeiting in Kenya, wishes to co-host its first three-day international symposium on IP protection and enforcement in Kenya in the month of June 2023 as a climax in commemorating the World Anti-Counterfeit Day.
The symposium aims to bring to- gether policymakers, judicial offi- cers, enforcers, leading academic scientists, research scholars and practitioners to exchange and share their experiences and research re- sults on all aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical chal- lenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Intellectual Property Rights.
The symposium is expected to iden- tify and document the best practices in managing and enforcing intellec- tual property rights, define the role of stakeholders in combatting coun- terfeiting, and outline policy and le- gal obligations of enforcement agen- cies in combatting counterfeiting and illicit trade in general. The con- ference aims to provide a platform to discuss national, regional and inter- national knowledge and experience on IP and development issues.
The three-day international confer- ence, which will be the first in Kenya, is expected to attract about 150 participants from different countries in Africa with panelists, speakers and discussants drawn from within and outside Africa.
The layout of the symposium will be in the form of sessions each with a moderator and a panel of speak- ers and discussants. This will be fol- lowed by Q&A from the participants. There will be opening and closing sessions by senior government offi- cials from Kenya.
