IVORY COAST – OAPI

COUNTRY : REPUBLIC OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE

CAPITAL : YAMOUSSOUKRO & ABIDJAN

LANGUAGE : FRENCH

 

The African Intellectual Property Organisation known commonly by it’s French Acronym (OAPI) was established through the Bangui Agreement at the Republic of Central Africa and is head quartered at Yaoundé, Cameroon.

OAPI is a comity of 16 Former French Colonies which are also French speaking Countries.

Member Countries are Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo, Equatorial Guinea.

Protection to Design is provided at a two tier level in CÔTE D’IVOIRE.

  1. OAPI: OAPI DESIGN REGISTRATION
    Kindly refer our treaty on OAPI Design Registration.
  2. INTERNATIONAL DESIGN PROTECTION UNDER HAGUE SYSTEM
    Kindly refer our treaty on The Hague system.

Legal questions regarding infringement and IP matters requiring litigation are to be settled by domestic courts of each state. Courts of each member state competent to rule on IP, wherein definitive rulings on validity of IP rights in one member state considered final in others as well, except rulings based on law and order or morality.

Member nations recognise provisions entrenched in the Bangui Agreement and its annexes as their national law. Hence, OAPI allows applicants to receive Patent & Design protection in all of the 16 jurisdictions through a single application and registration. Therefore, Registration in individual member nations, is no longer possible.

Certification by the OAPI automatically protects designs in all the 16 member countries.


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