Unfair Competition

Article 1(a) Schedule VIII of the Bangui Accord of 1977 as amended in 1999 provides that an act of unfair competition shall be constituted by any act or practice which, in the course of industrial or commercial activities, is contrary to honest practice. Such acts would include but not limited to:

• Generation (or likelihood of generation) of confusion with another’s enterprise or activities;
• Acts damaging to (or likelihood of misleading) the public with respect to an enterprise or its activities;
• Disparaging or likelihood of disparaging another enterprise or activities;
• Acts leading to the disclosure of another’s confidential information to third parties without the consent of that other;
• Acts liable to disorganize a competing enterprise, its market or the market of the profession concerned.

These acts are mutually exclusive and apply independently.

Unfair competition being an essentially civil action we frequently institute proceedings before the competent courts to obtain injunctions, damages (special and general) in this jurisdiction. Our attorneys are reputed for directing the courts to where justice is found in matters of unfair competition in particular and IP infringement in general.