Intellectual property is the foundation on which brands are built, innovations are commercialised and competitive advantage is secured. Protecting it across 51 African countries takes a strategic, commercially driven approach — and someone who knows each system from the inside.
A trademark is the identity of your business. We advise across the whole lifecycle — availability and clearance searches, registrability opinions, filing and prosecution, amendments, oppositions, cancellations and invalidation, ownership disputes, renewals and portfolio management.
A patent gives exclusive rights over an invention for up to 20 years. Patentability assessments and prior art searches, drafting, filing and prosecution, regional and international portfolio management, annuities and maintenance, and validity and infringement proceedings.
Counterfeiting undermines the brand you have built. Customs recordal and border enforcement, in-market investigations and intelligence gathering, search and seizure operations, and civil and criminal litigation.
Real value comes from putting a right to work. Assignments and transfers, licensing, franchising and royalty agreements, due diligence and valuation, security interests, and recordal of licences at the relevant registries.
Our expertise includes, but is not limited to, the following.
One of the most underused forms of IP. Registrability assessments and availability searches, filing and prosecution, responses to Registry objections, renewals, invalidity and cancellation proceedings, restoration of lapsed rights, and enforcement against imitators.
Protection, recordal where available, licensing, and enforcement against unauthorised reproduction and distribution.
A domain is a digital asset and an extension of your brand. Availability searches, registration, renewal and transfer, portfolio management and monitoring, disputes and recovery proceedings, defence of complaints, and website takedowns.
Protection and enforcement of indications of origin, an area of growing commercial significance across African agricultural and artisanal exports.
Protection for incremental innovation where full patent protection is not available or not commercially warranted.
Filing and prosecution of plant variety applications, registrability assessments and legal opinions, licensing and technology transfer, portfolio management, and enforcement against unauthorised use of protected varieties.
Advising on the establishment, expansion and acquisition of franchise businesses; preparing and negotiating franchise and licensing agreements; protecting franchise trade names, marks and slogans; operations manuals and training documentation; and franchise disputes.
For advertising agencies, media companies, production houses and publishers — advertising compliance, ambush marketing, comparative and misleading advertising, broadcast regulation, marketing contracts, and dispute resolution.
Cease-and-desist strategy and pre-litigation negotiation, registry oppositions, cancellations and claims of ownership, seizure orders, infringement and passing-off proceedings, and unfair competition.
OAPI — 17 member states. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. A single application covers all of them.
ARIPO — 22 member states. Botswana, Cabo Verde, Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
National filings. Algeria, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan and Tunisia.
Tell us what you have built and where you trade. We will tell you which protection is worth paying for, which is not, and what it costs.
Request your filing map