|
|
|
|
|
ISSUE 004
THE MERIDIAN BRIEFING
|
A concise read on sub-Saharan African deals, mandates and market moves, for the people who act on them.
|
|
Every Thursday at 11:00 AM | 29 October 2026
|
|
|
|
|
WHO OWNS THE BRAND?
|
Most African IP coverage counts filings and court cases. The money is elsewhere: in the licences, franchise agreements and brand acquisitions that decide who can use a name, a formula or a patent in a market. This week The Meridian put those deals on the record alongside the disputes and judgments, each counted once and each with its sources.
|
|
|
|
COVER STORY
|
|
The Africa IP database now separates six kinds of record: commercial transactions, filings and prosecution, disputes and enforcement, judgments, regulatory change and advisory mandates. As at 25 October it holds 68 published records, 33 of them commercial transactions. Hotel brands dominate the commercial side: Hilton, Marriott, Accor and Minor Hotels are licensing their names to African owners from Lagos to Libreville and Rabat. Medicines follow, with voluntary licences and sublicences that let African manufacturers make patented treatments. A filing is never counted as a deal, and the firm and lawyer rankings are calculated from the same records.
|
|
|
|
THE NUMBER
|
US$160m
|
Kenya's Thamani Asili conservation finance programme, signed this month. Donors provide US$80m and the government matches it over ten years, with funds tied to policy commitments under a project finance for permanence model covering 17.3 million hectares. The record
|
|
|
|
THE CASE TO WATCH
|
|
Competition Commission v Premier and RFG. South Africa's Competition Commission has asked the Competition Tribunal to revoke its approval of Premier's R6bn share-swap acquisition of RFG, or to order a refiling, alleging the parties did not disclose a planned cannery closure that could affect about 400 jobs. Premier denies wrongdoing. The deal has already been implemented, which makes this a rare test of disclosure duties after approval. These are allegations; the Tribunal has not ruled. Read more
|
|
|
|
MARKET MOVES
|
|
01 | Tanzania rewrites its trade mark rules. The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2026, gazetted on 2 October, protects collective, certification and non-traditional marks, strengthens well-known marks and recognises ARIPO registrations back to 1999. Details
|
|
|
|
|
02 | Two African makers for one flu treatment. The Medicines Patent Pool has sublicensed Roche's baloxavir marboxil to Nigeria's Fidson Healthcare and Uganda's Quality Chemical Industries. The record
|
|
|
|
|
03 | Anantara comes to Rabat. Minor Hotels has signed Anantara Retreat Rabat with Abu Dhabi's Bloom Holding, its first property in Morocco and another brand licence on the African IP record. See the hotel deals
|
|
|
|
FROM THE MERIDIAN DESK
|
|
Our homepage now refreshes itself every morning at 05:00 WAT from the published record: nine featured transactions, sixteen firms and deals across five regions, and no item repeated between sections. Every past edition of this newsletter is now in the archive. And SILK, our Lagos legal-career game, has a competition: the top three players on the leaderboard share a combined ₦1,000,000 prize pool when standings close at 23:59 WAT on 16 December. How to play · Rules
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
