Database on Flexibilities in the Intellectual Property System

Provisions of Law

Article 18

Filing Date

(1) The Organization shall grant as the filing date the date of receipt of the application,

written in one of its working languages, by the Ministry responsible for industrial property or

by the Organization, provided that, at the time of receipt, the application contains

(a) an express or implicit indication that the grant of a patent is requested;

(b) information whereby the identity of the applicant may be established;

more claims;

(d) proof of payment of the prescribed fees.

(2) The filing date of an international application shall be that assigned to it by the

receiving Office.

Article 20

Examination of Applications

(1) Any application for a patent shall undergo examination to ensure that

(a) the invention mentioned in the application is not excluded from the protection afforded by the patent under the provisions of Article 6 of this Annex;

(b) the claim or claims conform to the provisions of Article 14(1)(d)(iii) of this Annex;

(2) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (3) below, a search shall also be conducted to ensure that

(a) at the time of the filing of the patent application, an application for a patent filed earlier, or benefiting from a validly claimed earlier priority and concerning the same invention, was not in the process of being granted;

(b) the invention

(i) is new,

(ii) involves an inventive step,

(iii) is industrially applicable.

(3) The Administrative Council shall decide whether, and to what extent, the provisions of paragraph (2)(a) and (b) above shall be applied; in particular, it may decide whether all or some of the said provisions are applicable to one or several fields of technology covered by the inventions; it shall determine such fields by reference to the International Patent Classification.

(4) Where the invention relates to the use of a microorganism, the Organization shall reserve the right to require the applicant to deposit a sample of the microorganism as issued by the depositary institution or the international depositary authority.

(5) For international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Organization may avail itself of the provisions of Articles 20 and 36 of the said Treaty, which relate to the international search report and the international preliminary examination report, respectively.

Title:	Articles 18 and 20, Annex I; of the Bangui Agreement of 02/03/1977, as revised on 24/02/1999
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Substantive examination
Summary table:

Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - African Intellectual Property Organization

Provisions of Law