Final Whistle – AFCON
What a dramatic end to the 2025 AFCON tournament! Senegal secured its second AFCON title and one of its anchor players, Sadio Mané won the best player of the tournament award. As an African law firm, we celebrate with all participating teams and extend our congratulations to Senegal.
With the tournament now concluded, this marks our final IP update in this series. This edition focuses on Senegal and the semi-finalists teams, excluding Morocco, which was covered in our initial article.
Senegal is establishing a legacy not only in football but also in intellectual property development. Through its membership in OAPI (the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation), Senegal offers comprehensive IP protection. As covered in our previous update, the OAPI system provides centralized IP registration for all member states through a single office, based on uniform legislation. However, it is important to note that disputes concerning IP rights registered with OAPI must be pursued at the national level in member countries.
Egypt hasn’t just dominated AFCON with seven tournament victories; it has also built a notable IP protection framework. The country operates modern IP laws and competent e-filing system. Notably, Egypt is among the African nations that conduct substantive examination of patent applications. The country has also signed Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreements with both the Japan Patent Office and the China National Intellectual Property Administration, enabling fast-track examination procedures.
Nigeria is a passionate football nation, and expectations for the three-time AFCON winner remain consistently high. This expectation extends to IP matters as well. Nigeria has a track record for processing patent applications quickly. In fact, based on the 2025 AFCON tournament timeline ( 21 December 2025-18 Janaury 2026) , a patent application filed at the tournament’s opening would typically be accepted for grant by the final whistle of the championship match.
We continue to keep the IP score! Congratulations once again to Senegal and to all teams that made this tournament memorable.
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