African Intellectual Property Organization

The African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), short for Organization Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle in French, is a regional intellectual property organization headquartered in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The organization was established by the Bangui Agreement of March 2, 1977, and subsequently revised in 1999 and 2015 (Bamako). Intellectual property types registered in OAPI are automatically valid in its 17 current member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

OAPI registration is automatically extended to all member states. Upon joining OAPI, member states renounce their national application rights. Therefore, individual member states cannot be designated. Decisions of the national courts of any member state on the provisions of OAPI law, after notification to the Organization, are binding on all other member states.

OAPI Intellectual Property Legal Basis

• Bangui Agreement

International organizations/agreements

• Berne Convention (all countries are members)
• Brussels Convention on Signals (Togo is the only party)
• Budapest Treaty (OAPI is a member)
• Cooperation Agreement between OAPI and EAPO
• Hague Design Agreement (OAPI is a member) (9 countries are members; Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Togo are not yet members)
• Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration (only Burkina Faso, Congo, Gabon and Togo are members)
• Locarno Agreement on the Classification of Industrial Designs (Guinea is the only member)
• Nairobi Treaty for the Protection of the Olympic Symbol (only Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal and Togo are member states)
• Nice Agreement on the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (only Benin and Guinea are member countries)
• Paris Convention (all countries are members)
• Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) (all countries are members)
• Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms (only Burkina Faso and Togo are parties)
• Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (only Burkina Faso, Congo, Niger and Togo are member states)
• Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks (Mali is the only member country)
• Strasbourg Agreement on the International Patent Classification (Guinea is the only member country)
• Trademark Law Treaty (only Burkina Faso and Guinea are members)
• Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Guinea is the only member country)
• Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (all countries are members)
• WIPO Copyright Treaty (only Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo are member states)
• Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (only Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo are member states)
• WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (all countries except Equatorial Guinea are members)