Fashion as an Emerging Industry in Africa, and How Intellectual Property Rights can be a Tool for the Development of the Industry. Regional IP Filings: Africa, Latin America and Europe.

This session will start with a presentation on the African Development Bank’s "Fashionomics" initiative. This is a platform for the most exclusive high-end Made-in-Africa designs, which connects African designers with consumers, mentors and investors around the world.
The session will continue with analysis of how some countries (in Africa and Mexico) have implemented specific measures for the protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions (such as textile printing and textile designs).
Finally, the session will look at the different regional systems for filling intellectual property rights. In particular we will examine Latin American regional systems, African Regional systems and the European Union Intellectual Property Office. This will be followed by a round table discussion of the main similarities and differences between the systems reviewed.