Cameroon Trademark Registration

In Cameroon, effective trademark protection is obtained **through registration with the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI). Cameroon does not have a standalone national trademark system: to protect a mark in this country, it must be registered via OAPI, which automatically grants protection in all 17 OAPI member states.

A trademark filed and registered with the African Intellectual Property Organization OAPI will cover: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

Key reasons to register your trademark through OAPI for protection in Cameroon are:

• You obtain exclusive rights in Cameroon and all other OAPI member states with one single filing.
• You are able to stop infringing uses and oppose later conflicting applications.
• Registration provides a clear, centralized official record of ownership, useful for enforcement, licensing and commercial transactions.

OAPI is also a member state of the Madrid Protocol, which means that you can also seek protection for Cameroon (and the other OAPI members as a bloc) by designating OAPI via the Madrid System. We offer services for trademark filing through the Madrid System.

If you register a combined trademark (word + logo) through OAPI for use in Cameroon, your exclusive rights are limited to the exact configuration as filed. If you intend to use the verbal element separately from the figurative element (or vice versa), it is advisable to file additional applications for the word mark and/or device mark alone.

To register a trademark in Cameroon, you will generally need:

• Original Power of Attorney, signed. No notarization or legalization required.
• The name or logo you want to register
• The applicant’s details

Your iGERENT consultant will confirm the exact requirements for your case and guide you through each step.

The average timeframe to obtain a trademark registration covering Cameroon through OAPI is approximately 9 months.

This is an estimated duration for straightforward cases, based on current processing times. The total time may vary depending on:

• Possible objections or office actions from OAPI, and/or
• Any opposition actions filed by third parties after publication in the Official Gazette.

Once your trademark is granted registration through OAPI (and thus protected in Cameroon):

• The registration is valid for 10 years from the application date.
• It can be renewed indefinitely for further periods of 10 years each.

The renewal can be requested during the six (6) months following the expiration date, within a grace period, upon payment of late renewal fees.

Because OAPI operates as a unitary regional system, the registration continues to protect your mark in Cameroon and all other OAPI member states, provided that renewals are timely filed and the mark is not successfully cancelled (for example, on grounds of non-use).

Yes. Through the OAPI system, third parties may oppose a trademark application that would cover Cameroon.

• Opposition actions may be filed within six (6) months following the publication of the application in the Official Gazette of OAPI.

Oppositions are usually based on grounds such as:

• Prior rights (earlier registered or applied-for marks), or
• Likelihood of confusion due to similarity of signs and overlap of goods/services.

The probability of success of an opposition depends on the specific facts of each case—similarity of the marks, evidence of prior rights, distinctiveness, and the arguments presented.

Use is not required for a trademark to be registered through OAPI and obtain protection in Cameroon.

However, post-registration use is important:

• If the trademark is not used for more than five (5) consecutive years after registration, it becomes vulnerable to cancellation actions based on non-use.
• To avoid this vulnerability, it is sufficient that the trademark be used in any one of the OAPI member states, not necessarily in Cameroon itself.

Therefore, while you can obtain registration without prior use, maintaining some genuine commercial use of the mark within the OAPI territory is recommended to secure your rights over the long term.