Cape Verde: clever IP schemes to help grow the economy
Ever since Cape Verde has acceded to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) treaties (ie, Madrid Protocol, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement and Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property), as well as to the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization's (ARIPO) Harare and Banjul protocols, the National IP Office has been actively making efforts to foster the role of Intellectual Property in boosting innovation and creativity, by developing information and awareness-raising activities to promote namely national economic operators and the general public to the importance of registering their IP assets in order to protect creativity and innovation, but also to diversify and bolster the economic development.
For the time being, and according to the Institute for Quality Management and Intellectual Property (IGQPI), Cape Verde currently has around 4700 active trademarks in the PTO’s internal system.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that most of these trademarks (around 3870 trademarks) are foreign—mainly from Europe, the Americas and Asia.
This certainly displays the international interest in Cape Verde’s national market and the IGQPI’s articulated partnership with its foreign counterparts.
It is, however, important to highlight the lower IP presence of the local population in the sector.
Looking into Cape Verdean’s overall development, the nation has achieved significant social and economic growth since its independence in 1975, mainly driven by the sector of tourism.
Even so, having in mind the country's geographic challenges and limited resources, it is crucial to focus on diversifying the economic activities within the territory, so that external factors, such as the environmental crisis and global shocks, do not stagnate or prevent the continued development and growth of the national economy.
During the most intense years of the pandemic, there was a significant decline in the number of guests. However, in 2022, Cape Verde achieved a new milestone by hosting its highest-ever number of tourists, with over 835,000 visitors. This highlights the tourism sector's crucial role in the Cape Verdean economy and is further emphasised by the extensive number of trademarks filed by international applicants.
Below is a table from INE detailing the number of guests (“hóspedes”) and overnight stays (“dormidas”) from the years 2016 to 2022.
