On July 23, 2021, the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development jointly issued the Anti-Counterfeit (Amendment) Regulations, 2021 (Legal Notice no. 117) and the Anti-Counterfeit (Recordation) Regulations, 2021 (Legal Notice no. 118). The proposed amendments to the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act of 2018, adopted by Kenya’s Parliament to bring some adjustments or amendments to several intellectual property legislations, including the Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008 (‘the Act’), would be implemented under these Regulations.
New Anti-counterfeiting Regulations in Kenya
The Regulations establish a formal record system in which the owner of an intellectual property right pertaining to products to be imported into Kenya records the intellectual property right in a specified form with the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) and pays the required official fees. Following receipt of the application, the ACA will notify the applicant in writing of the application’s acceptance or rejection. If the record application is accepted, it will be valid for a year, renewed one month before it expires. Official renewal costs must be paid.
If the owner of a registered intellectual property right changes, the new owner must seek to continue with the current recordal as soon as possible if the new owner chooses to do so. The ACA must be notified within 30 days of the transition if the new owner does not intend to continue the previous recordal. Similarly, any change in the applicant’s name must be reported to the ACA.
The Regulations further provide that anybody may examine the Register to determine the specifics of any intellectual property right registered with the ACA. Owners of intellectual property rights are urged to register their rights so that the ACA can more effectively combat the counterfeit products trade in Kenya.
The ACA is expected to establish an online platform to help with this record-keeping procedure, and it will make more announcements about its deployment soon.
The list of Kenya IP Firms can be found here.