Madagascar

Madagascar and twelve other African states signed the Libreville Agreement of September 13, 1962, establishing a uniform regime for the protection of industrial property and creating the African and Malagasy Office of Industrial Property (OAMPI), located in Yaoundé (Cameroon). This office was responsible for common administrative procedures and acted as a national public service for each of the thirteen member states. Following the denunciation of this Agreement by Madagascar on 31 January 1974, which took effect on 31 December 1976, a legal and administrative vacuum existed in this area. However, the provisions of Article 12.1) of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of 20 March 1883, to which Madagascar acceded in 1963, stipulate that: "Each country of the Union undertakes to establish a special industrial property service and a central repository for the communication to the public of patents, utility models, industrial designs and trademarks". This is how, after many draft legislative texts drawn up by the ministerial departments concerned, Ordinance No. 89-019 of July 31, 1989 establishing a regime for the protection of industrial property in Madagascar was promulgated. Then came Decree No. 92-993 of December 2, 1992 implementing the said ordinance and Decree No. 92-994 of the same date creating and organizing the Malagasy Office of Industrial Property (OMAPI).