The African Intellectual Property Organisation, better known by its French acronym “OAPI” has its headquarters in Yaoundé – Cameroon. Its 16 member states include: the Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Chad, Comoro Islands, the Republic of Congo, the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, the Republic of Gabon, the Republic of Guinea – Conakry, the Republic of Guinea – Bissau, the Republic of Mali, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the Republic of Niger, the Republic of Senegal, the Republic of Togo and Equatorial Guinea.

It should be noted that any trademark registration in OAPI has an effect in all the 16 member states.

English and French are the working languages of OAPI.

The protection of the trademark at OAPI takes effect from the date of filing.

An OAPI registration covers those territories that are members of OAPI at the time of registration. Following the introduction of the Extension Regulation on December 4, 1998, it became possible to extend rights to territories that join OAPI subsequently, by filing an application for extension.

On January 1, 2008, the Extension Regulation was amended to introduce the concept of automatic extension on renewal. The intention of the amendment is to confirm that all trademarks renewed after December 4, 1998, extend automatically to the countries that are members of OAPI at the time of renewal, effective from the date of renewal.

As a consequence of this amendment, OAPI is now rejecting applications for extension to territories which it considers are already protected as a result of a prior renewal. However, it still remains possible to apply for extension of rights to a new country at any time before the renewal of the OAPI right.

Although this new interpretation of the law is a practical and cost-effective solution to the extension of rights to new OAPI countries, this regulatory amendment may be open to challenge for being in conflict with the law, which requires an extension application to be filed in order to extend existing OAPI registrations to new jurisdictions, and makes no mention of automatic extension on renewal.

A second issue is the wording of the amendment itself. The amendment is intended to take retroactive effect and apply to all renewals filed since the Extension Regulation came into effect on December 4, 1998. However, this is not clear from the wording of the amendment, which on strict interpretation implies that only renewals filed after January 1, 2008 extend automatically to all the OAPI states.

In OAPI’s view, the Extension Regulation and its subsequent amendment does not conflict with the law, but serves to clarify a matter over which the law itself silent. The fact that the law provides for the filing of extension applications does not preclude automatic extension on renewal, but gives IP owners the option of applying for extension of rights if they wish, before renewal takes place.

It is most unlikely in practice that a court would fail to support OAPI’s change in procedure. Furthermore, OAPI have confirmed that the Bangui Accord is due to be revised in the next two years and that any inconsistencies will then be rectified.