The African Intellectual Property Organization (commonly known by its French acronym OAPI) is a regional organization for the protection of Intellectual Property, comprised of the following 17 member states – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros Islands, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Here, it is not possible to register a national trademark – the only option to gain trademark protection,in these countries, is to file a trademark with OAPI

Registering domain names in each country in this region is also no easy feat with each country having its own unique rules and regulations.
Nevertheless, if a trademark is worthy of the protection within OAPI then a corresponding domain name is just as relevant.
Due to the limited domain name recovery options in this region it is recommended that a strategic defensive registration policy be adopted. If a local presence is an obstacle, we would only recommend registering domain names in the extensions highlighted in green below.
Country | Extension | Restriction |
Benin | .bj | None |
Burkina Faso | .bf | Local presence or trade mark required |
Cameroon | .cm | None |
Central African Republic | .cf | None |
Chad | .td | None |
Comoros | .km | Local presence or trade mark required |
Congo | .cg | None |
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) | .ci | None |
Equatorial Guinea | .gq | None |
Gabon | .ga | None |
Guinea | com.gn | Local presence demonstrating intention to use |
Guinea-Bissau | .gw | None |
Mali | .ml | None |
Mauritania | .mr | None |
Niger | .ne | Local presence required |
Senegal | .sn | None |
Togo | .tg | None |
We are aware that our clients are looking for a regional solution so we have packaged all the domain name extensions listed above into one bulk offering to ensure that your OAPI trademark is secured within the domain name space of theregion.
Please reach out to us for costing on the OAPI domain name package.