Bemanya elected Director General Intellectual Property Organisation
By Our team
The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) Registrar General Bemanya Twebaze was on Tuesday elected as the new Director General, African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO).
Bemanya was elected during the 44th session of the Administrative Council of ARIPO held in Harare Zimbabwe via a virtual meeting.
Bemanya defeated candidates from Zambia and Kenya. He will now leave his Registrar General position in Uganda and move to Harare where the ARIPO offices are based.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement released on Wednesday noted that, Bemanya will become the fifth Director General for the ARIPO.
“This historical election of a Ugandan to serve as Director General of the African Intellectual Property body comes in the wake of Uganda’s adoption of a National Intellectual Property Policy to support the existing legal regime, and to further generate, protect, commercialize, utilize and enforce Intellectual Property in Uganda,” the Ministry stated.
ARIPO is an inter-governmental organization (IGO) established by the Lusaka Agreement of 1976 – to facilitate development and protection of Intellectual Property rights in member-states. ARIPO facilitates cooperation among member states in intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, utility models, industrial designs, plant varieties, traditional knowledge, and folklore expression and geographical indications) matters, with the objective of pooling financial and human resources, and seeking technological advancement for economic, social, technological, scientific and industrial development.
ARIPO has 20 member states; Botswana, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the Sudan, Mauritius, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working closely with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Uganda Missions in different African Member Countries, were instrumental in securing victory for Bemanya.
Just last week, another Ugandan Caroline Nalwango Magambo was appointed the second African and first Ugandan to be appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions in the United Nations.
On Friday Justice Julia Sebutinde was given another term at the International Court of Justice.
According to URSB website, Bemanya is a lawyer and current Registrar General of URSB a position he has served since 2012.
He holds an Executive MBA from ESAMI, an Honours Degree in Law from Makerere University, a post graduate diploma in legal practice, and several other certificates in legal issues, administration and management from national and international training institutions.
In 2017 he was awarded by Harvard University an Executive Certificate in Public leadership having completed three Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Programs.
He is the current President of the Paris Union Assembly (International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property). He is a board member of the Capital Markets Authority, National Identification Registration Authority, and URSB.
He has served as Chairman of Administrative Council of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) from November 2013-November 2015.
He has also served as director and secretary to many other companies and served as an administrator of the Uganda Telecom.
As the Registrar General, he has transformed and turned around URSB as one of the most efficient government agencies.
He has a wealth of experience in legal practice with more than 20 years in the field of commercial law, business registration, and insolvency among others.