To guarantee dev’t of enterprises: SMEs, business operators sensitised on need to ensure protection of trademarks.

The workshop was held in Yaounde August 6.

Placed under the theme: “Trademark protection: a challenge to business development in Cameroon”, the workshop was organised by the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, MINMIDT. 

The initiative was fronted by MINMIDT’s Department of Technological Development and Industrial Property, DDTPI. This was in collaboration with the African Intellectual Property Organisation, OAPI.

The opening ceremony was chaired by the MINMIDT’s Secretary General, Oumar Ali, on behalf of his boss, Minister Fuh Calistus Gentry. 

In his keynote remarks, the minister’s representative hammered on the need for businesses, especially those in the agri-food sector, to be registered at the OAPI to reap the benefits of trademark protection.

“The main objective is to inform business leaders about the importance of protecting industrial property titles in general, and trademarks in particular,” the MINMIDT scribe said.

He then explained that trademarks are distinctive signs that constitute a powerful vector for rallying customers around a product or service. 

“A trademark offers protection to its owner, giving him or her the exclusive right to use it, or to authorize a third party to do so, in return for remuneration. In this way, it contributes to building consumer loyalty, encouraging initiative and entrepreneurship, and offering owners recognition and financial rewards,” Oumar Ali enlightened.

Most trademarks still unregistered

Oumar Ali also noted that despite the numerous number of companies operating in Cameroon, yet the number of trademark applications filed in Cameroon in recent years, remains low. 

Citing a report analysing the 2022 statistical yearbook on SMEs released by the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts, MINPMESSA, out of over 350,422 companies present in the country between 2016 and 2022, only 370 trademarks were registered in 2021, and 404 in 2022. 

With nearly 20,000 more businesses created in Cameroon by 2023, only 348 secured their trademarks. 

“The holding of a workshop to raise awareness of registration among Cameroonian companies is a source of great pride for us, and reinforces the government's determination to make intellectual property an important element of our development policy in general, and of business development in particular,” he added.

The official also pointed that intellectual property assets such as service marks, collective trademarks, certification marks and others, must be integrated as significant tools in securing businesses in order to help improve the incomes of economic operators.

Entrepreneurs, other business operators challenged

While congratulating business operators who have secured trademarks for their companies or businesses, he called on them to encourage others who are still lagging behind to do same.

In the course of the workshop, the participants were edified by experts via different presentations on trademark registration procedures, how to present the interest of protection on a national and international level, and the socio-economic consequences of counterfeiting, among other things. 

By the end of the workshop, it is hoped that the participants were sufficiently equipped and galvanized to protect their products and companies to ensure their businesses can flourish.

After the awareness raising workshop in Yaounde, a similar one has been announced for Douala in the days ahead.

This story was first Published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3192 of Wednesday August 07, 2024