As the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) marks its 50th Golden Jubilee—celebrating five decades since the historic Lusaka Agreement of December 9, 1976—the regional IP landscape stands at a transformative crossroad. The foundational objective of ARIPO was pooling regional resources and harmonising IP frameworks. Today, Generative AI introduces cross-border challenges that no single territorial copyright regime can resolve in isolation:
THE TRAINING DILEMMA: AI training spans borders—scraping works in one country, processing them in another, and commercialising outputs regionally. Landmark US rulings like Thomson Reuters v ROSS Intelligence (denying fair use for training on proprietary headnotes) and Bartz v Anthropic (distinguishing lawful training from pirated datasets)
AUTHORSHIP & OWNERSHIP: AI-generated outputs challenge national standards requiring human authorship. Without clear legislative clarity, uncertainty persists for creators and developers alike.
ZAMBIA’S DUAL POSITION: Under the National AI Strategy (2024–2026) and the 2025 Science, Technology & Innovation Policy, Zambia recognises that AI growth demands sound IP protection. The challenge is achieving equilibrium: shielding Zambian authors, filmmakers, musicians, and developers while maintaining an enabling environment for indigenous technological innovation.
THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: ARIPO’s 50th milestone is more than symbolic, is a strategic vehicle to operationalise instruments like the Kampala Protocol on Voluntary Registration of Copyright. A harmonised regional registry and dataset-licensing framework would allow African innovators to legally access content while ensuring African creators are properly compensated in the AI value chain.
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DAC Legal Insights is published by Dzekedzeke & Co. Legal Practitioners for public legal education and informational purposes only. It does not constitute formal legal advice.
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