Cameroon

Firm overview

Von Seidels is a specialist IP law firm in Africa with a team of over 100 people. We assist clients both locally and internationally in obtaining all forms of IP protection and deals with all IP related commercial activities, including agreements, valuations and litigation.

Our head office is in Cape Town and we have a satellite office in Johannesburg, South Africa. We have offices in ARIPO (Namibia), OAPI (Cameroon) and Nigeria.

Von Seidels OAPI office is based in Yaoundé, Cameroon and is managed by Oswald Alembong who resides in Yaoundé.

Oswald Alembong, a qualified chemical engineer, worked in our head office in Cape Town, South Africa for five years and qualified as a South African attorney and patent attorney. He returned to his home country of Cameroon in January 2020 and established our OAPI office. In addition to being a South African patent attorney, Oswald is also a qualified Cameroonian attorney.

Our OAPI office provides IP services in 17 African countries. OAPI (Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle) is a regional filing system for patents and trade marks providing protection in all its 17 member countries which are predominantly French-speaking: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Comoros. 

Our offices cover the majority of the African continent. South Africa, ARIPO, OAPI and Nigeria combined comprise 70% of Africa’s countries. In the rest of Africa we work with trusted agents. 

With many years of experience working in Africa, we have vast local knowledge and understanding of country-specific legislative requirements and issues across this continent.

Firm overview

AKKUM, AKKUM & ASSOCIATES was established in 2002 with a resolve to create a distinguished full service legal practice. We are a dynamic partnership registered under the laws of the Republic of Cameroon. Our main mission is to deliver premium service, quality, and value to our clients. We incorporate a rich blend of traditional legal practice with the spirit required to satisfy the constantly evolving dynamism of business in our result driven professional services.

We have a blend of industry-recognised partners, consultants and Associates with an ability to provide value-added legal services to our clients’ sometimes complex needs. The foregoing has seen our reputation in the industry grow considerably. We present our clients with the broadest mix of cognate skills, and depth of expertise drawn from decades of experience in corporate commercial transactions and dispute resolution. Our up-to-date awareness of and participation in local and international commercial developments, which drive corporate commercial transactions enables us to adopt forward-facing approaches to legal issues referred to us. The firm has been ranked amongst the best law firms in Cameroon, with many awards won in diverse categories, and complemented by multiple other international awards.

Our core practice is concentrated in the areas of Corporate and Commercial law, Banking and Finance, Immigration Law, Labor and Employment, Energy, Transport, Intellectual Property, Tax, Dispute Resolution and Litigation, Financial Institutions, M&A and Securities.

Since our inception in 2002, we have built a strong reputation for providing high quality, results-oriented IP solutions, consistently delivering top-notch services in an expeditious and diligent manner.

Our team of experienced and certified IP professionals offers a full spectrum of services, ranging from filings, through prosecution and litigation as the case may be for all categories of intellectual property rights. We help clients navigate the often complex and rapidly evolving IP landscape, ensuring that their innovations, brands, and creative works are fully protected within the OAPI territory.

What sets us apart is our fierce commitment to provide timely and effective solutions to our clients while upholding the ethical standards of the legal profession. We understand the importance of time in the world of intellectual property and work tirelessly to ensure that our clients’ IP needs are met quickly and efficiently, without sacrificing quality or attention to detail. Our expeditious approach has earned us praise from clients who rely on us for swift and reliable IP protection.

We provide tailored strategies to meet the specific needs of each client, whether they are startups or entrepreneurs seeking to protect their inventions and creative works, multinational corporations managing a global IP portfolio, out of seat sister firms seeking reliable and efficient local expertise. Our comprehensive understanding of local, regional, and international IP laws enables us to deliver solutions that not only protect but also add value to our clients’ intellectual property assets.

Firm overview

OUR JURISDICTION

The African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) with headquarters in Cameroon, is an intergovernmental organization acting as the industrial property office for its seventeen (17) member states to wit: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros Islands, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

OAPI is responsible for the filing, registration, maintenance and publication of Patents, Trademarks or Service Marks, Utility Models, Industrial Designs, Trade Names, Geographical Indications, Layout Designs (topographies) of Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety Protection within its member states.

One of the peculiarities of OAPI is that it operates a regional system of filing whereby a single registration automatically covers the seventeen (17) member states.

WHO WE ARE

We are an emerging law firm dedicated to providing clients with bespoke IP services at cost effective rates whilst maintaining a high standard of professionalism.

As OAPI licensed IP property attorneys, we offer you a full range of legal and professional intellectual property services focused on advising, assisting and representing our clients in registering, obtaining, exploiting, maintaining, and defending their industrial property portfolios before the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) and other jurisdictions.

We understand the importance of intellectual property rights and the role they play in protecting your valuable assets. That is why we provide tailored solutions for you that are both effective and efficient, by maintaining a high level of responsiveness to your instructions, and diligence in executing our services whilst providing up-to-date feedback on the progress of your assignments.

Thanks to our extensive experience and expertise, we have successfully established sustainable professional relationships with IP practitioners in other jurisdictions in Africa and abroad, ensuring that our clients receive unparalleled services; reflected by our remarkable satisfaction rate of over 99.5%, which is a testament to our commitment to legal advisory excellence.

Firm - Year of Establishment: 2018

Total Number of IP Practitioners: 2

Languages Spoken at the Firm: English and French

Network Memberships: INTA