Insights · · By Soel Ngaba
OAPI — New patent and utility model law coming into force shortly
We received information from the Head of the Patent Department at OAPI that Annexes I and II (patents and utility models) of the revised Bangui Agreement would be brought into force on 1 January 2025. Further guidance from the Organisation was expected. The main points for applicants were as follows.
- Voluntary divisional applications may be filed at any time before grant (under the former law, only up to the expiry of the 30-month PCT regional-phase deadline).
- Applications will be published for opposition. The opposition period is three months from publication. Under the former law, publication took place only after registration, with no opposition.
- Substantive examination of patent applications will be conducted by OAPI — novelty, inventive step, industrial application. A training school for examiners has been opened in Côte d’Ivoire.
- Pharmaceutical product claims will not be enforceable until 1 January 2033 in OAPI territories classed as least-developed, in accordance with article 66 of the TRIPS Agreement.
- A prior-right claim may challenge an applicant who does not have the right to file.
- An appeal procedure is provided, with a 60-day term against oppositions, ownership claims or restoration decisions.
We, with our affiliated office in Cameroon, remain specialists in OAPI filing, recordal and renewal.
Team EKEME LYSAGHT