Angola: Is trademarks success a sign of things to come?
Angola continues to recognise IP rights as an important contribution to a country’s social and economic development and in the last IP Bulletin issued (4/2023), published statistics related to the years 2020 to 2022.
Overall, 2022 was marked by an increase in the request for protection of several rights of Industrial Property, where the demand levels for trademarks and other distinctive signs of trade were 23% higher than those recorded in 2021.
As for patent applications, there was a slight decrease in 2022 compared to 2021, around 8%, with patents applications via the Patent Cooperation Treaty continuing to be the most popular method of filing.
Regarding Industrial Models, there was a small increase in the number of applications in 2022 compared to 2021, approximately 16%, unlike Industrial Designs, which saw a slight reduction of around 8%.
Trademarks, in general, continue to stand out in terms of protection requests compared to other IP rights, with 2022 being the year with the most applications filed since the approval of the Industrial Property Law.
Statistical data for IP rights for 2020, 2021 and 2022
Trademarks
In 2022, there was a significant increase in the total number of applications, with 5,180 applications filed compared to 4,224 applications filed in 2021, representing an 8% increment.
In 2022, similar to 2021, the number of applications from Angolan applicants exceeded the number of applications from non-Angolan applicants.
The statistical data also shows that, in terms of non-resident applicants, China surpassed the US as the country with the highest number of applications filed from 2020 to 2022, with 816 applications, followed by the USA with 756 applications.
In this regard, the applicants’ countries that have filed more trademark applications since 2020 in Angola were the following (not counting local applicants):
2020:
