Two members of the intellectual property community have passed on.
First, Bernard de Pasma who was Head of Industrial Property with Péchiney and subsequently with Vallourec, President of the French groupe "AAPPI", Professor at the CEIPI and for many years responsible for courses organized in cooperation with the WIPO for young civil servants of the offices in developing countries.
We have also just learned about the death of Denis Ekani who was a well-known figure in intellectual property circles on the African continent but also in Europe and the rest of the world.
Denis Ekani, lawyer, graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, defended a thesis at the University of Strasbourg concerning the African Intellectual Property Organization (AIPO) which was created in 1962. He was the first director of this African organization of which he was the founder. Denis Ekani was also a Minister in various governmants in the Republic of Cameroon. A few years ago he created a counseling firm in industrial property in Yaoundé.
Denis Ekani, was not only the ambassador of the AIPO in all international meetings dedicated to intellectual poroperty, he was also an important legal professional who worked throughout his career for the promotion and the defence of Intellectual Property notably in Francophone Africa. The recently created center for teaching and research at the AIPO is named after him, an ultimate hommage to great African in intellectual property.
