Sweden jurisdiction report: Valuable lessons in IP
Sida’s activities are funded through Swedish tax revenue, and through cooperation with civil society, multilateral organisations, public agencies and the private sector, Sida works on sustainable development projects and assists in creating conditions for people living in poverty and oppression to improve their living conditions.
Sida’s geographical focus is on countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
In this respect, knowledge about IP and how this can lead to economic development is a very important part of its activities.
Before COVID-19, international IP training programmes (ITPs) were held at the PRV main office in Stockholm, where participants spent three weeks meeting experts from PRV, as well as other agencies, organisations and companies, and visited Swedish businesses. The goal was (and is) to study how IP, including copyright, patent, trademark and design protection, can lead to economic development.
After the first phase of the course, each participant continued to work on their project back home, with a follow-up about six months after the course in one of the participants’ countries, in which the participants reported their results and how they planned to continue developing their projects.
At the last physical meeting in 2019, 25 participants from 14 countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Laos, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, participated for three weeks in seminars and roundtable IP discussions, as well as international negotiation and project management.
Virtual training
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the doors for international travel and physical meetings, the pandemic shows that it may be more important than ever to keep up the development and protection of IP rights, in order to find solutions to medical problems, develop the general industry and improve living conditions. Therefore, PRV is now offering virtual versions of the ITPs .
“The pandemic shows that it may be more important than ever to keep up the development and protection of IP rights.” – Maria Zamkova
During 2021, the PRV arranged three training programmes: ITP: 313a and 313b: “Intellectual Property for Least Developed Countries (LDCs)”, with initial virtual meetings in February and May, and virtual follow-up meetings in September and December 2021. The main objectives, as presented by PRV, for the programme include:
