Multi-national African entity that provides collective filing, depository and examination services for patents, utility models, trademarks and trade names, industrial design rights, geographical indications, copyright and plant variety rights. Its primarily Francophone (French speaking) members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
Although OAPI has two working languages, English and French, in practice, materials on its website are almost exclusively in French. A similar though primarily Anglophone and Lusophone (Portuguese speaking) African organisation African Organisation of 19 members is the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation or ARIPO.