Other patent systems
Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO)
There are eight states party to the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC): Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Belarus, and the Russian Federation. By filing one single application, you may obtain a patent in all these countries.
The EAPO has its headquarters in Moscow. You can draft your application in any language, but it has to be translated into Russian for the procedure. Your application will apply to all the contracting states. When making a PCT application, you can designate the EAPO as one country.
Go to the EAPO website for more information.Open link in a new tab
African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)
There are currently 19 states which are members of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO). They are: Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The ARIPO has its headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe. By filing one single application, you may obtain a patent in all these countries. When making a PCT application, you can designate the ARIPO as one country.
Go to the ARIPO website for more information.Open link in a new tab
Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI)
The African Intellectual Property Organisation, better known by its French acronym “OAPI", has 17 member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Comoros Islands and Equatorial Guinea.
The OAPI is headquartered in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Its member states are mainly French-speaking, but patent applications have to be drafted in English. By filing one single application, you may obtain a patent in all these countries. When making a PCT application, you can designate the ARIPO as one country.
Go to the OAPI website for more information.Open link in a new tab