Click here to read the December 2025 edition of our Intellectual Property and Technology Quarterly Newsletter. Highlights include:
Kenya
The ongoing Telecommunications Market Structure Review promises to reshape licensing and operational requirements, with the Communications Authority set to continue to play a vital role in the implementation of the sectoral changes.
There is significant development in the financial services sector, which sets the stage for compliant product structuring, institutional participation, and clearer risk governance, while sharpening the competitive edge of market infrastructure, payments, custody, and compliance solutions. Companies and entities should anticipate near-term operational and strategic implications especially with the dual-regulator model employed under the Act.
The Gambling Control Act, 2025 has introduced a completely overhauled legal and regulatory framework for gambling in Kenya, replacing the long-standing Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act, which has been in force since1966. Central to the new regime is the establishment of the Gambling Regulatory Authority, which now takes responsibility for national licensing, compliance oversight, online gambling regulation, and enforcement.
Kenya and Tanzania
In Kenya and Tanzania, the responsibility of protecting personal data is enforced by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and the Personal Data Protection Commission, respectively.
Recent judgments indicate that the regulators expect organisations to secure parental consent before using any data relating to children, and that failure to do so may result in significant legal and financial penalties.
Tanzania
The recent decision of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania in Lakairo Industries Group Co. Ltd & Others v Kenafric Industries Ltd & Others provides a definitive statement on the enforceability of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)-registered trademarks in Tanzania.
The Court reaffirmed the long-standing principle of territoriality, holding that trademarks registered through ARIPO under the Banjul Protocol have no legal effect in Tanzania unless the Protocol is formally ratified and domesticated into national law.
South Africa
Historically, before a court would have considered jurisdiction over a matter involving a foreign defendant, South African law required the cause of action to have arisen within the court’s jurisdiction, as well as the attachment of the foreign defendant’s assets to have occurred.
In recent developments, such attachment of the foreign defendant’s assets is no longer necessary to found jurisdiction, provided that the initiating process (ie, the summons) was served on the foreign defendant while present in South Africa, and where there is sufficient connection with the cause of action.
