OAPI's participation in the 68th annual meetings of the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in Geneva, ended on July 14, 2026, on a particularly positive note, marked by the strengthening of strategic partnerships and the opening of new prospects for cooperation.
Throughout these meetings, the OAPI delegation, led by its Director General, Denis BOHOUSSOU, held numerous working sessions and high-level meetings with WIPO officials and several institutional partners.
Highlights included the audience granted by the Director General of WIPO, Daren Tang, as well as discussions with the Organization's Vice Directorate General and several strategic divisions, including the WIPO Academy, the Innovation and Ecosystems Sector and WIPO GREEN.
These meetings provided an opportunity to review the initiatives undertaken jointly by the two institutions and to examine prospects for further strengthening their cooperation in the service of innovation, the knowledge economy and sustainable development
Discussions focused in particular on the results recorded in the areas of developing innovation ecosystems, empowering women economically through intellectual property, capacity building and developing the integrated regional network of Technology and Innovation Support Centres (CATI) in the OAPI area.
The discussions also revealed new avenues for collaboration, particularly in the areas of:
•capacity building for the benefit of Spanish-speaking audiences;
• supporting innovation, sharing expertise and developing new collaborative projects;
•promotion of geographical indications through initiatives that promote the preservation of natural and environmental resources;
• for the development of industrial designs and models;
• strengthening the training offer and adapting educational content to the realities and specific needs of the OAPI area.
These meetings also provided an opportunity to highlight the importance of developing national skills through training programs offered by the WIPO Academy, with a view to strengthening the professionalization of actors and the enhancement of intellectual property assets.
Alongside these meetings, the Director General of OAPI also held a working session with the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), Ana Margarida Moura Soares. Following these general assemblies, OAPI welcomes the progress made and reaffirms its commitment to pursuing, with WIPO and all its partners, a dynamic cooperation based on concrete, high-impact projects for the benefit of its member states.
