Sierra leone Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in sierra leone, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
Select Country Guide
Protecting Intellectual Property
Last published date:

Sierra Leone is a member of the WTO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, the common intellectual property body for English-speaking African countries. Sierra Leone is bound by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) but has yet to ratify the WIPO Copyright Treaty or the Berne Convention to Protect Literary and Artistic Rights. Intellectual property laws date to the colonial era, are incomplete, and protection is limited. Efforts to update the country’s legal framework have included the Copyright Act of 2011, the Patent and Industrial Design Act of 2012, and the Trademark Act of 2014. Even with these updated acts, legal protection and enforcement is minimal. Customs screening for counterfeit goods is weak, and the government does not regularly publish statistics about seizures of counterfeit goods.
 

In any foreign market, companies should consider several general principles for effective protection of their intellectual property. For background, link to our article on Protecting Intellectual Property and Stopfakes.gov for more resources. For more information, contact Intellectual Property Attaché for Sub Saharan Africa Katherine Hiner (located in Johannesburg) at Katherine.Hiner@trade.gov  or ITA’s Office of Standards and Intellectual Property Rights (OSIP) Director, Stevan Mitchell at Stevan.Mitchell@trade.gov.

To access the Sierra Leone’s Investment Climate Statement, which includes information on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, visit the U.S. Department of State Investment Climate Statement website.

×

Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

Privacy Program | Information Quality Guidelines | Accessibility