Home / Vol.14, n°3 / Libres propos sur la législation OAPI relative aux obtentions végétales

Innovations related to biotechnology and plant varieties are regarded as an efficient and suitable means to enhance the improvement of food production, lives and working conditions of farmers as well as those of local communities in the member States of the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI). From a legal point of view, the legal protection of those innovations on plant varieties is questionable. The legislator of the OAPI Law of 1977 had not considered any protection for plant varieties. Contrary to some industrialized countries where a sui generis system of protection or a protection by the patent system were organized, plant varieties and biological processes for the breeding of plants were mentioned only to be excluded from the patentable domain. The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) modified the situation by imposing that plant varieties shall be protected either by patents or by a sui generis system or through the combination of the two methods. The legislator of the OAPI Law of 1999 wanted to incorporate these new international requirements while amending the Bangui Agreement. At the same time,the plant varieties' exclusion from patentability was maintained. Hence, the legislator had no other option than adopting a sui generis regime of protection. He materialized this option by inserting in the Bangui Agreement of 1999, the Annex X related to the “Plant Variety Protection”. This appendix is drafted in light of the 1991's version of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants put in place by the European countries. This choice remains questionable. Indeed, the Annex X introduces in the OAPI zone a disembodied legislation, because it is incomplete and unsuited to the socioeconomic environment of the member States of the OAPI.