COEUR IP — At the heart of African IP
At the heart of African IP

Stop paying three firms to do one filing.

Africa is 54 countries and three filing systems. Most instructions travel through a chain of intermediaries before they ever reach a registry. We hold agency rights with OAPI directly, contract from the United States, and cover 51 African countries.

I'm Vanessa Halle — called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincoln's Inn in 2011, admitted in Cameroon in 2013, and an OAPI-accredited IP attorney since 2017.

Get your Africa filing map See where we file
Barrister Vanessa Halle, Managing Partner of COEUR IP

Barrister Vanessa Halle — Managing Partner

15
Years at the Bar, England & Wales and Cameroon
17
OAPI states, filed directly
51
African countries covered, of 54
1
Person accountable for your file
Why this practice exists

Most African filings arrive down a chain. We shortened it.

Intellectual property work in francophone Africa rarely arrives directly. A firm abroad instructs a regional firm, which instructs a local agent, which finally files. Every step adds a margin and a wait, and the instruction drifts further from the person who wrote it.

COEUR IP holds agency rights with OAPI itself. You instruct a US company, and that company files the application directly.

The usual routeYou → your firm → a regional firm → a local agent → OAPI
OursYou → COEUR IP → OAPI
AdmittedEngland & Wales, 2011 · Lincoln's Inn — Cameroon, 2013
OAPIAccredited IP attorney since 2017 · registration no. 0004
MemberAmerican Bar Association · INTA · AIPPI · ECTA · Cameroon Bar
Working inEnglish and French — the two languages African IP is filed in
Engraved illustration of the African continent
Coverage

Where we file

Africa is 54 countries and three filing systems. Which one reaches your market decides what protection costs and how long it takes.

Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Democratic Republic of Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Côte d'Ivoire Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Congo (Republic of the) Rwanda Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Eswatini Togo Tunisia Uganda Tanzania Western Sahara Zambia Zimbabwe Cabo Verde São Tomé and Príncipe Comoros Seychelles Mauritius
OAPIOne filing covers all 17 states. Filed directly.17
ARIPORegional filing, states designated individually.22
NationalFiled country by country.12
Not coveredDjibouti, Eritrea, Libya.3
Practice areas

What we protect

From clearance searches through to enforcement against counterfeiters, across the whole life of the right.

Trademarks

Searches, filing and prosecution, oppositions and cancellations, renewals, licensing and franchising.

Patents

Patentability searches, drafting and prosecution, annuities, technology transfer and enforcement.

Anti-counterfeiting

Customs recordal, border enforcement, investigations, and civil and criminal action.

Commercialisation

Licensing, assignments and royalties, due diligence and valuation, recordal at the registries.

Industrial designs

Registrability, filing and prosecution, trade dress, portfolio management and infringement actions.

Domain names

Registration and transfer, monitoring, dispute and recovery proceedings, website takedowns.

Franchising

Franchise and licensing agreements, operations manuals, jurisdiction-specific structuring.

Plant breeders' rights

Plant variety applications, registrability opinions, licensing and enforcement.

Consumer & advertising

Advertising compliance, comparative and misleading advertising, broadcast regulation.

Litigation

Cease-and-desist strategy, registry oppositions and cancellations, court proceedings.

Get started

Tell us the markets. We'll tell you what it takes.

Send your mark or invention and the countries that matter to your business. You'll get back which filing system reaches each one, what it costs, how long it takes, and where you are currently exposed. If there is nothing worth filing yet, we will say so.

  1. You send the mark or invention and your target markets.
  2. We map it against OAPI, ARIPO and national filings.
  3. You get a filing map with real costs and timelines — and a call if you want one.

Your enquiry is read by the attorney who will handle the matter.

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