Tunisia is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and party to the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Marks.  The National Institute for Standardization and Industrial Property (INNORPI) is the agency responsible for patents and trademarks; the Tunisian Copyright Protection Organization is the agency responsible for copyrights; and the Tunisian Internet Authority is the agency responsible for administering the .TN country-specific top-level domain name.

Tunisia’s various intellectual property laws enshrine the equal treatment of foreign registrants and Tunisian nationals.  Registration and maintenance requirements for Tunisian patents, trademarks, and copyrights are straightforward and relatively inexpensive when compared to similar requirements in the United States.  The creation of a specialized intellectual property court in 2014 employing judges and court clerks with specific training and expertise in handling intellectual property cases has also significantly increased the speed and quality of legal enforcement decisions for U.S. clients, with numerous high-profile wins for companies claiming trademark infringement in connection with counterfeit goods.

In 2016, Tunisia signed an agreement with the EU that allows automatic patent protection in Tunisia for European patent applications through the European Patent Organization.  The agreement went into effect in December 2017.

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.

IP Attaché Contact for the Middle East & North Africa:

Name:  Aisha Y. Salem-Howey

Address:  U.S. Embassy Abu Dhabi, UAE

Telephone:  +971-2414-2539

E-mail: Aisha.Salem-Howey@trade.gov

For more information, contact ITA’s Office of Standards and Intellectual Property Rights (OSIP) Director, Stevan Mitchell at Stevan.Mitchell@trade.gov.

To access the Tunisia 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.