Classification

The International Classification of Goods and Services (Nice Classification) is applied. A separate application has to be filed for each class of goods or services.

Convention priority

Since Zimbabwe is a member of the Paris Convention. An applicant for a trade mark who has applied for the same trade mark in another Paris Convention member country, is entitled to a priority right. This accords them the same effective date as the first filed application, provided the Zimbabwe application is filed within six months of such earlier filing date.

Specific provision has also been made for the recognition of applications filed in terms of the Banjul Protocol of ARIPO, in which Zimbabwe is designated. A trade mark which has been registered by ARIPO in terms of an application shall have the same effect as a trade mark registered under the Act.

Examination/procedure

Applications are examined as to inherent registrability and for conflict with prior registrations and/or pending applications.

Opposition

Any person may, within two months of the advertisement of the acceptance, give notice to the Registrar of opposition to the registration. Extensions of time may be granted by the Registrar.

Duration and renewal

A trade mark registration is effective for an initial period of 10 years and, thereafter, is renewable for like periods upon payment of the prescribed renewal fees.

If a renewal fee is not paid within the prescribed period, the Registrar shall remove the trade mark from the register. The proprietor of the mark may apply within three years of such removal for the trade mark to be restored to the register, declaring that the mark has been used during the period of removal, or furnishing satisfactory reasons as to why there was no such use.

Patent protection

Patent protection is available by way of a national filing or via an ARIPO or PCT application designating Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has implemented the Harare Protocol (which regulates patent and design filings in ARIPO) in its national law, thereby giving valid patent protection to applicants seeking to obtain a patent via an ARIPO application.

Since Zimbabwe is a member of the Paris Convention, a national application may claim priority based on an earlier application in a convention country.

Zimbabwe has also implemented the provisions of the PCT in its national law, thereby recognising and affording valid patent protection in the case of international PCT applications designating Zimbabwe.

Types of patents

The Act provides for the following types of patents:

  • Patents for inventions which are new, inventive and industrially applicable
  • Patents of addition to cover modifications or improvements made to the invention of the main patent.

Patentable subject matter

An invention is patentable if it is new, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable. An invention is defined to mean any new and useful art, whether producing a physical effect or not, process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter which is not obvious, or any new and useful improvement thereof which is not obvious, capable of being applied in trade or industry.

A patent shall not be granted for

  • Diagnostic, therapeutic or surgical methods for the treatment of human beings or animals
  • Plants and animals, other than micro-organisms
  • Essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals, other than microbiological processes.

The Act also provides that the Registrar may refuse an application if it appears to him that –

  • The application is frivolous in that it claims as an invention anything obviously contrary to well-established natural laws
  • The use of the invention would be expected to endanger public order or public safety, or would encourage offensive or immoral behaviour, or endanger human, animal or plant life, or cause prejudice to the environment
  • The application claims as an invention a substance capable of being used as food or medicine, which is a mixture of known ingredients possessing only the aggregate of the known properties of the ingredients.

Novelty

An invention is new if, before the effective date of the application, the invention was not –

  • Known or used in Zimbabwe by anyone other than the applicant or the person or persons from whom he derived his title (secret knowledge is excluded)
  • Worked in Zimbabwe otherwise than by way of reasonable technical trial or experiment by the applicant or the persons from whom he derived his title
  • Described in a patent specification available to public inspection
  • Described in writing or in any other way in any publication in or outside Zimbabwe
  • Claimed in any complete specification in Zimbabwe which, though not open to public inspection, has an earlier effective date.

Examination/procedure

Applications are subjected to formal examination only, which takes place automatically, although the Act provides for examination in regard to the grounds on which the application may be opposed. If the application is accepted, the applicant is notified, who must then, within a prescribed period, advertise the acceptance in the Patent Journal. Upon advertisement all documents become open to public inspection.

Duration and maintenance

The term of a patent is 20 years from the filing date or international filing date, subject to payment of the annual renewal fees. A grace period of six months is provided for, subject to payment of surcharges.  Failure to pay a renewal fee causes the patent to lapse.

Design protection

Design protection is available by a national filing or via an ARIPO application designating Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has implemented the Harare Protocol (which regulates patent and design filings in ARIPO) in its national laws, thereby giving valid design protection to applicants seeking to obtain a design registration via an ARIPO application.

Registrable subject matter

Industrial design means features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation applied to an article by any industrial process or means, being features which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not include a method or principle of construction or features of shape or configuration which are dictated solely by the function which the article to be made in that shape or configuration has to perform.

Novelty

In order to be registrable, a design must be new or original. A design is deemed to be new or original if, before the effective date, the design was not –

  • Known or used in Zimbabwe by any other person (secret knowledge or use being excluded)
  • Described or illustrated in a publication inside or outside Zimbabwe
  • Registered in Zimbabwe
  • The subject of a pending application with an earlier effective date and subsequently registered in Zimbabwe.

Novelty is not destroyed by confidential disclosure of the design by the proprietor, by disclosure in bad faith by a third party, by acceptance of a first confidential order for goods bearing the design, or by communication of the design to authorised government personnel.  Display of the design at an officially recognised exhibition does not destroy novelty, provided the applicant notifies the Registrar in advance and application is made before or within six months of the opening date of the exhibition.

Examination/procedure

The Zimbabwe designs office conducts a formal examination and may subject the design to substantive examination. Substantive examination is in respect of novelty and originality of the design. If the design is found to be registrable, it is accepted, and the applicant must advertise the acceptance in the prescribed manner.

Duration and maintenance

The initial term of the design registration is 10 years, which is extendible upon payment of renewal fees for one further five year term. In the event of non-payment of the renewal fee, the Registrar may remove the design from the register.

Protection

The effect of protection by way of a plant breeder’s right is that the holder of the right is entitled to prevent anyone from selling, reproducing or multiplying reproductive material of the protected plant or a plant essentially derived therefrom.

Protectable subject matter

Protection can currently only be obtained for 32 prescribed kinds of plants.

Duration

A plant breeder’s right endures for 20 years from the date of grant. A five year extension can be obtained in exceptional circumstances.

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