PCT Natioanl / Regional Phase Applications

PATENTS / ENTRY OF OAPI REGIONAL (NATIONAL) PHASE OF PCT APPLICATIONS

Under the OAPI, a patent is a monopoly right to the exclusive use of an invention / owner and can last for a maximum of 20 years. It can either be filed directly at the OAPI or through the entry into National Phase of a Patent Cooperation Treaty Application.

Entry into a National Phase – Cameroon / OAPI (Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle) based on a Patent Cooperation Treaty Application

Cameroon is a Member State of the OAPI. The OAPI Patent Office is located in Cameroon. The entry of a single PCT Regional Phase Application in Cameroon (i.e. a single registration at OAPI) protects the invention in all member States. The following States are currently Member States of the OAPI: Cameroon, Benin, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Congo, and Niger, Equatorial-Guinea, Senegal, Gabon and Togo.

Application Procedure.

The application procedure involves us completing and filing the relevant application form on behalf of the Applicant. The application also has to be accompanied by the relevant attachments and is only effective upon the payment of all the relevant OAPI official fees and charges.

We would usualy require our clients or their lawyers to provide us with the following information in order to enable us to prepare, complete and file the relevant application forms:

Relevant information required for the entry into the national phase at the OAPI of a PCT Application:

(1) Information concerning the PCT Application :
The PCT Application Number:
Date of the PCT application:
The PCT WO (Publication) Number:
The PCT WO (Publication) Date:
2) The Title of the Application :
3) Information on the Applicant of the Regional Phase Application
Name:
Address:
Nationality:
Country of registration in case of corporate applicants:
Telephone Number:
Fax Number:
4) Information on the Inventor or Inventors
The full name:
Residential address:
Occupation
Nationality:
5) Information on any claim of priority based on an earlier application
Type of earlier application:
Country in which the application was made:
The application number:
The date on which the application was filed:
The name of the applicant of the said application:
6) A signed and dated but un-notarized Power of Attorney (See Sample copy ). The executed Power of Attorney can be scanned and sent to us electronically. However, we would require the hard copy to be eventually mailed to us.

7) Where applicable, documents justifying any claim for Priority
8) If the Application on which priority is being claimed is not in the name of the Applicant, then we will require documents justifying the assignment of the said application to the current Applicant.
9) All relevant fees have to be paid at the time of the filing of the Application. These include Filing fees, Publication Fees and where applicable, Fees per claim as from the 10th claim, Fees for additional pages as from the 10th page of the Patent description / specification inclusive of the claims.
10) Five clear copies of the Patent description/specification inclusive of the claims. This should be in either English or French (a single copy can be sent to us electronically i.e. an attachment or a PDF format via e-mail will enable us to print and prepare all the copies required).