Form and substance: the developmental promises of geographical indications in Africa

Abstract Geographical indications (GIs) are considered as a viable instrument for sustainable development. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights marks a turning point in the pursuit of IP harmonization for African countries to facilitate and deepen intra-African trade. In Article 9 (1) it obliges parties to provide GI protection through sui generis systems and the option of additional legal means of protection through certification marks, collective marks or unfair competition laws. This provision affirms the existing practice with countries using trade mark and consumer protection laws to protect origin-linked goods or sui generis systems such a specific GI legislation. The question, however, remains as to what extent African countries have achieved progress in their sustainable development and food security goals through deploying either of the legal protection mechanisms, and whether the specific form of legal protection has had any impact on the origin-linked goods. Several initiatives have led to the registration of some GI in Africa. This article analyses the nature of regional initiatives for the registration of origin-linked goods and examines the challenges and gains of the registration of origin-linked goods using two case studies from Cameroon and South Africa to assess whether the origin-linked goods derived any (dis)advantage based on the specific type of legal protection model.