CLDP and the Department of Justice, jointly with the Republic of Botswana Administration of Justice (AOJ), sponsored the three-day Regional Workshop on Intellectual Property Enforcement in the Southern Africa Region: The Adjudication of Cases. The program, held in Gaborone, Botswana from May 13-15, 2010, featured participation from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), two U.S. federal judges, and the South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

During this three-day workshop, over 100 participants from the Southern African region gathered to address the adjudication of intellectual property (IP) cases. Participants included justices, judges and magistrates from Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, as well as the host country’s Administration of Justice, Attorney General’s Chambers, the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property, the Copyright Society of Botswana, the Botswana Police Service, the Unified Revenue Services and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. These individuals joined with regional practitioners and academics from the University of Botswana for a series of panel discussions, practical exercises, and exchanges of ideas and best practices.

The conference increased the skills and knowledge levels of the participants to more fairly, consistently, and efficiently adjudicate IP cases. Furthermore, the conference increased awareness of the benefits of enhanced IP enforcement through the participation of the U.S. federal court judges and prosecutors who shared their collective experience in adjudicating basic and complex issues in trademark, patent and copyright cases.