ABSTRACT
The TRIPS Agreement does not prescribe the way in which countries must protect GIs. The choice of GI protection regime which countries may choose will depend partly on their legal tradition and partly on the legal regime that obtains in target markets. Francophone countries have tended to follow the French precedent of sui generis laws to protect GIs. Cameroon, Gabon and Senegal, as signatories of the March 1977 Bangui Agreement on Intellectual Property which set up the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) that governs the protection of intellectual property rights in 16 countries of Western and Central Africa have in place regional sui generis legislation for the protection of GIs. Annex VI of the Bangui Agreement, as last amended in February 1999, provides for the protection of GIs. The scope of application of the GI Law of Annex VI is more extensive than the scope of the EC system, as it applies to all agricultural, craft or industrial products (Article 1). Morocco has enacted a national sui generis GIs law. 1
