On 1 October 2024, Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers approved the country’s accession to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. The ratification documents have been sent to the parliament.

Since patent protection in Ethiopia is only available via national filing, this is great news for an applicant wishing to enter the national phase in Ethiopia. However, it will not be possible to enter the national phase after the 12-month period until the documents have been ratified by the parliament and the Ethiopian IP laws have been amended.

The advantage of Ethiopia acceding to the Paris Convention is that this will in turn allow Ethiopia to join the Madrid Protocol.