(4) The Register shall be prima facie evidence of any matters required or authorized
by or under this Act to be entered therein.
[Amended by Act 25 of 2001 with effect from the 1st March, 2002.]
(5) No notice of any trust, whether expressed, implied or constructive, shall be
entered in the Register, and the Registrar shall not be affected by any such notice.
PART III
REGISTRABLE DESIGNS AND PROCEEDINGS FOR
REGISTRATION
6
Designs registrable under Act
(1) Subject to this Act, a design may be registered under this Act in respect of any
article or set of articles specified in the application.
(2) Subject to this Act, a design shall not be registered under this Act unless it is new
or original.
(3) A design shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to be a new or original
design if, on or before the date of application for registration thereof, such design or a
design which differs from such design only in immaterial details or in features which
are variants commonly used in the trade, was not—
(a)
known or used in Zimbabwe by anyone other than the applicant, his
agent or any person from or through whom the applicant has derived his right or title:
Provided that secret knowledge or secret user otherwise than
on a commercial scale shall be disregarded for the purposes of this paragraph; or
(b)
described or illustrated in a publication, whether in or outside
Zimbabwe; or
(c)
registered in Zimbabwe; or
(d)
the subject of an application for the registration of a design in
Zimbabwe or of an application in a Convention country for the registration of a
design which has subsequently been registered in Zimbabwe in accordance with the
provisions of section thirteen.
(4) Regulations made under section fifty-eight may provide for excluding from
registration thereunder designs for such articles, being articles which are primarily
literary or artistic in character, as the Minister thinks fit.
7
Proprietorship of designs
(1) Subject to this section, the author of a design shall be treated for the purposes of
this Act as the proprietor of the design:
Provided that where the design is executed by the author for another person for
valuable consideration, that other person shall be treated for the purposes of this Act
as the proprietor.
(2) Where a design, or the right to apply a design to any article, becomes vested,
whether by assignment, transmission or operation of law, in any person other than the
original proprietor, either alone or jointly with the original proprietor, that other
person or, as the case may be, the original proprietor and that other person shall be
treated, for the purposes of this Act, as the proprietor of the design or as the proprietor
of the design in relation to that article, as the case may be.
8
Persons entitled to apply for registration
(1) An application for the registration of a design may be made by any of the
following persons—
(a)
a person claiming to be the proprietor of the design; or
(b)
an assignee;
and may be made by that person either alone or jointly with any other person.
(2) Without prejudice to subsection (1), an application for the registration of a design
in respect of which an application for protection has been made in a Convention
country may be made by the person by whom the application in the Convention
country was made or by the assignee of that person:
Provided that no application shall be made under this subsection after the expiration
of six months from the date the application for protection was made in the