International Treaties to which OAPI is a signatory:
•    Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial Property
•    Patent Co-operation Treaty – PCT.
•    Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights –TRIPS.
•    Budapest Convention

Months from the date of priority or International filing whichever is earlier

FILING WITH PATENT OFFICE-                  12 Months
REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION        –    Within 6 month from the date of direction    
COMPLIANCE OF OFFICE ACTION     –
ANY OTHER COMPLIANCE         –

Member Nations of the OAPI have retained significant portions of the legal systems of the countries that colonised them.

However, legal questions regarding infringement and IP matters requiring litigation are to be adjudicated by domestic courts of each state.

Member nations recognise the provisions entrenched in the Bangui Agreement and its annexes as their national law. 

Hence, OAPI allows applicants to receive patent protection in all of the 16 jurisdictions with a single application and registration.  

Therefore, Registration in individual member nations, is no longer possible. 

Inventions may relate to products, processes or industrial applications.  Patents are therefore granted to inventions that: 

Inventions pertaining to the following:
•    Discoveries, Scientific Theories & Mathematical methods.
•    Aesthetic creations.
•    Substances already existing in nature and nuclear materials.
•    Charts
•    Schemes, Rules, Methods for performing mental acts, playing games, doing business as well as Presentation of Information.
•    Programmes for Computers.
•    Inventions contrary to public order & morals.
•    Methods of treatment by surgery or therapy on humans and animals.
•    Prejudicial to the Interest or Security of the Nation.

(i).   A formal request for the grant of a patent of invention .
(ii).  The name and address or head office of the applicant or his representative .
(iii).  Short adequate Title of the Invention to be patented.
(iv).  Summary of the invention and Priority data if any.
(v).  Description of the invention along with drawings if any.
(vi).  Claims along with Abstract
(vii). Drawings necessary to understand the invention.

•    The invention’s patentability.
•    The patent application’s unitary features.
•    The accuracy of the priority claimed.
•    The invention’s compliance with the patentability conditions.

•    Patents confer to its holders or his successors an exclusive right to work the invention.
•    Patentee may authorise such uses of the patent through a contractual agreement with interested parties as to import, rent out, deliver or sell the product patent .
•    Patentee may authorise the working of the patent either by a manufacturer or by an importer.
•    Patentee may even assign, lease or licence the patent.
•    Patentee  is entitled to take legal action against infringers.
•    Patentee  is entitled to retain moral right over the invention as ‘the author of the invention’.
•    The patent can be pledged for which it has to be registered in the patent register to become effective.

On the request of any person made after the expiry of a period of 4 years from the date of the filing of an application for a patent or 3 years from the date of the grant of a patent, whichever period expires last, a compulsory license may be granted where one or more of the following conditions are fulfilled :
(i). the patented invention is not being worked on the territory of a member State at the time the request is made;
(ii). the working of the patented invention on the above-mentioned territory does not meet, on reasonable terms, the demand for the protected product;
(iii). the working of the patented invention on the above-mentioned territory is being prevented or hindered by importation of the protected product;
(iv). by reason of the refusal of the owner of the patent to grant licenses on reasonable terms, the establishment or development of industrial or commercial activities on the above-mentioned territory is unfairly and substantially prejudiced.
(v). where a patented invention cannot be worked without infringing rights under a patent granted on an earlier application or benefiting from a validly claimed earlier priority ("earlier patent"), a compulsory license may be granted to the owner of the later patent to the extent necessary for the working of his invention, insofar as such invention constitutes an important technical advance in relation to the earlier patent.