ARIPO Fees Increase Significantly

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) has made major changes to the Harare Protocol from March 1, 2025, marking a major shift in the protection of intellectual property rights in Africa. These changes not only affect substantive examination and administrative procedures, but also significantly adjust the official fees for invention patents and designs.

Extension Flexibility

• One of ARIPO's new measures is the introduction of a mechanism that allows patent applications filed through ARIPO to use different claims in different designated countries. This new provision allows applicants to tailor their claims to meet the requirements of national law or examination practice in individual member states. In the past, applicants had to use uniform claims in all designated countries of ARIPO, which often resulted in the entire application being affected when one or more countries raised objections. This amendment means that different claims can be used for specific jurisdictions when necessary. It will benefit multinational companies and regional applicants who want to maximize protection from defendants across the African continent and deal with different national legal frameworks at the same time.

Time limits for response and notification

• The changes will standardize responses and, in some cases, extend the time limits for official responses. These revised deadlines apply to multiple procedural stages, including responses to office actions, corrections, and payment of outstanding fees.

Significant fee increases and introduction of new charges

• Official fees for invention patents and designs have increased significantly, including application submission fees, excess claim fees, substantive examination fees and annual fees. The increase in some official fees exceeds 50%.
• In addition, ARIPO has introduced new fees that did not exist previously, such as fees for proactive amendment of claims after filing or fees for requests for extensions of time.
• ARIPO does not offer fee reductions to small entities, academic institutions or other non-commercial applicants.

Administrative modernization and back-office improvements

• ARIPO has also implemented digital processes for its internal administrative procedures to improve responsiveness and ensure faster examination processes.

The 2025 revision of the Harare Protocol marks a decisive evolution in ARIPO’s development as a regional IP administration. Through a combination of procedural reforms, financial recalibration and administrative improvements, the organization is positioning itself to better meet the needs of Africa’s increasingly complex innovation ecosystem. For those active in the region, these changes underscore the importance of flexibility, foresight and strategic planning in the management of IP rights.