Insights · 2024-02-27 · By Soel Ngaba

[Practitioner’s view] Geographical indication or collective mark?

Geographical indications in the OAPI region matter first to practitioners: the object is well known in theory, far less in its relations with other signs, starting with trade marks — collective marks included. They also matter to the Organisation and its 17 States, which for some fifteen years have treated them as an instrument of economic policy.

The support programme for geographical indications (PAMPIG) has, among others, seen the registration of Penja pepper and Oku honey (Cameroon), Ziama coffee (Guinea), Sugarloaf pineapple (Benin), the Sapomé hat (Burkina Faso), Bandiagara shallots (Mali), Galmi violet onion and kilichi (Niger), Baoulé cloth and Lagunes attiéké (Côte d’Ivoire).

For a value chain that wants a common label, the practical question is often this: go straight to a GI, or is there an intermediate right?

Definitions

A trade mark, in OAPI law, is a visible or sound sign used or intended to be used in trade and capable of distinguishing goods or services.

A collective mark is one whose conditions of use are fixed by rules approved by the competent authority. Only certain officially recognised and legally capable groups, unions and associations may use it.

A geographical indication identifies a product as originating in a place where quality, reputation or another characteristic is essentially attributable to that origin. “Product” is wide: natural, agricultural, craft or industrial.

Common ground

Both concern a sign, usually visible and verbal, capable of distinguishing goods. Both proceed by an application to OAPI. Once registered they confer analogous rights and collective ownership: several persons may use them, including alongside individual marks.

Differences

The file is not the same: rules of use on one side, often a heavy book of specifications on the other. A collective mark lasts 10 years and may be renewed. A GI is in principle unlimited, without renewal. A GI is tied to a precise geographical area; a collective mark need not be. Paradoxically, a GI has a wider symbolic and macroeconomic reach, and primacy over later marks.

What to choose? The EKOKI matter

A WIPO pilot on gastronomic tourism selected Cameroon. A study listed culinary traditions; ten were chosen, including EKOKI. Attributing the dish to two cultural areas opened a dispute: national cultural registers recognised only one. An inter-ministerial working group clarified the attachment and recommended IP protection.

Filing a GI is not, in itself, the hardest step. The methodology of identification, selection and recognition — from the ground to the top of the State — is long and costly. Some ingredients of the recipe (nyébé beans) were themselves eligible as GIs.

In the meantime, filing a collective mark “EKOKI” proved more flexible: rules of use, an inclusive process, administrations and local authorities agreed on the sign.

The relationship is therefore not exclusive. A collective mark can be a stepping-stone towards a GI, which requires cooperation among communities, public authorities and sometimes several States.

Team EKEME LYSAGHT