How to protect your trademark with OAPI: procedure, costs and steps in 2026

Many entrepreneurs make costly mistakes: wrong class, no prior art search, confusion over duration or territorial effects. Filing a trademark prevents third parties from using it without the startup's consent, and allows action for infringement.

If you are building a startup, a media brand or a tech product in French-speaking Africa, this read is essential. And if you are preparing a fundraising round, an unprotected trademark is an immediate red flag for investors.

What is OAPI?

The African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) is the regional intellectual property office based in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

It covers 17 French-speaking African member states, including:

• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Comoros
• Congo
• Ivory Coast
• Gabon
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Equatorial Guinea
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Niger
• Senegal
• Chad
• Togo

For other African countries (Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria...), see our specific guides: Tunisia Trademark Filing Guide and Morocco Trademark Filing Guide.

Why file a trademark with OAPI?

Protecting your trademark is not an administrative formality. It's a strategic lever:

1. Secure your commercial identity — prevent a competitor from exploiting your name
2. Add value to your startup during fundraising — in a VC or private equity context, an unprotected trademark is an immediate red flag
3. Create a transferable or licensable asset — a protected trademark can be sold or licensed
4. Take action for infringement — without filing, it's impossible to legally pursue a counterfeiter

OAPI trademark filing procedure: 7 detailed steps

What documents are needed to protect your trademark?

Your filing application must contain the following documents:

• an application addressed to the Director General of OAPI;
• the M301 filing form, mandatorily containing:
  • the reproduction of the trademark (logo), if it is figurative;
  • the list of goods or services for which the trademark will be used;
    → for example, for a startup in the automotive sector, file your trademark in class 12 "vehicles, devices for locomotion on land", and other relevant classes
  • the exact contact details of the applicant(s) (first name, last name/name/corporate name, address, phone numbers, fax and email);
  • the claim of colors, where applicable;
• proof of payment of fees due to OAPI;
• the representative's power of attorney under private seal (authorization letter), without stamp if the applicant is represented;
• the reproduction of the trademark on the M301 form, where applicable.

How much does an OAPI trademark filing cost in 2026?

The cost varies depending on:

• The number of classes
• Service fees
• Administrative costs

In practice:

• Basic official fees: approximately XAF 360,000
• Each additional class entails an additional cost

Warning: the cost of a poorly structured filing is often higher than that of a well-supported filing. A poor choice of classes or an unanticipated opposition can cost you thousands of euros in rebranding.

Source: OAPI website

Duration of OAPI trademark protection

The trademark is protected for 10 years from the filing date.

It is renewable indefinitely for 10-year periods.

Unlike a patent (limited to 20 years), a well-maintained trademark can last forever. Coca-Cola, Nike, Apple — their trademarks are more than 50 years old and are renewed every 10 years.

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Filing without a prior search — you are building on already occupied ground
2. Choosing too few classes — you grow but are not protected on your new activities
3. Using a descriptive or weak trademark — "Fast Delivery" for a delivery startup is too generic
4. Confusing domain name and legal protection — buying a .com does not protect your trademark
5. Waiting for a fundraising round to regularize — a trademark filed late may block regional expansion

To avoid these mistakes during your legal structuring, also see: The term sheet in the fundraising process and The founders' shareholders' agreement.

Case study: when "Zap" costs millions — Zap Africa vs Paystack

In March 2025, Paystack launched a new payment service: "Zap by Paystack". A few minutes later, a startup reacted. Zap Africa, a crypto startup, claimed on X (Twitter) to be the only entity allowed to use this name in Nigeria.

Two companies. The same name. The same market. The conflict starts here.

The legal problem

In trademark law, everything comes down to two elements:

• Who filed first
• In which classes

Paystack reportedly filed "Zap by Paystack" as early as December 2023 in class 36 (financial services). For its part, Zap Africa reportedly registered its trademark between 2023 and 2025, with a class 36 filing occurring only in March 2025, according to available information.

At the time the trademarks were registered, no opposition appears to have been filed. Probably due to a lack of competitive monitoring by both startups.

The real business impact

"Many clients thought we were going to shut down", explained the CEO of Zap Africa (source: Techcabal).

• Their fundraising round was impacted
• The teams started to doubt
• On Paystack's side, confusion also took hold among users
• Resources were mobilized on legal matters
• Zap Africa launched a complete rebranding

All of this… for a name.

The 4 lessons to remember to avoid this scenario

If you don't secure your assets, someone else will do it for you. Specifically:

1. Check the availability of the name before any launch — prior art search is mandatory
2. File the trademark in the right classes and in the company's name — not the founder's name
3. Monitor competing filings (and file opposition if necessary)
4. Secure all intellectual property at company level — code, designs, trademarks, patents

The reality is brutal: you can invest in product, marketing, acquisition… and end up legally blocked. Changing your name after launch is not a detail. It is a loss of value, time, and often a major strategic cost.

OAPI vs other protection systems

Unlike EUIPO in Europe, OAPI does not allow individual national filings.

The system is unitary: either you protect in all 17 countries, or you don't protect at all.

This represents a strategic advantage if you have regional ambitions — a single filing covers the entire OHADA territory. But it's a disadvantage if you only target a single country (e.g., Senegal only) — you pay for 17 countries while operating in only one.

Why African unicorns protect their brand from seed stage

The African unicorns — Flutterwave, Wave, Chipper Cash, Interswitch, OPay — all have one thing in common: they filed their trademarks before their massive regional expansion.

Why? Because an unprotected trademark in a target country can:

• Be filed by a bad-faith third party (trademark cybersquatting)
• Block your entry into the market
• Force you to rebrand in that country (loss of brand consistency)
• Cost you millions in trademark buyback or legal proceedings

If your ambition is to build the next African unicorn, intellectual property must be secured from the start. It's one of the first checks Series A investors make — and an immediate red flag if you haven't protected anything.

To learn more about the path to unicorn status, see: Fundraising in French-speaking Africa: understanding the types of funding rounds.

FAQ — OAPI Trademark Filing

References:

• Agreement revising the Bangui Agreement of March 2, 1977, establishing an African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI);
• OAPI website