Gambia in West Africa is home to the capital city in which the
African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation's (ARIPO)
Administrative Council first adopted the Banjul Protocol in 1993.
Under ARIPO's regional system, applicants are required to
designate the member states for which their trademark protection is
intended. The associated costs of the procedure depend on the
number of designated states in each application.
On 3 May Gambia joined the Banjul Protocol, bringing the number
of member states to 12 (joining ARIPO, Botswana (joined 2003),
Eswatini (1997), Lesotho (1999), Liberia (2010), Malawi (1997),
Namibia (2004), Sao Tome and Principe (2016), Tanzania (1999),
Uganda (2000) and Zimbabwe (1997)). The government deposited its
instrument of ratification with the ARIPO director general on the
same day.
