530
Right of
priority
No. 22 of 2016]
Industrial Design
28. (1) Subject to this Act, a person who has filed an
application for the registration of a design in a convention country
shall, in relation to the registration of the same design in Zambia,
have a right of priority for a period not exceeding six months from
the date of filing the conventional application.
(2) A right of priority referred to in subsection (1), shall be
capable of being assigned or transmitted with the application or
independent of the application.
(3) An assignment or transmission or a right of priority referred
to in subsection (1), shall be in writing and if not so done shall have
no legal effect.
(4) Where a subsequent application for the registration of a
design is filed in a convention country, following an earlier application,
in respect of the same design, such subsequent application shall be
considered to be the first application in that country in respect of
that design if, at the time of filing the application—
(a) the previous application had been withdrawn, abandoned
or refused without having been opened to public
inspection;
(b) no priority rights have been claimed on the basis of the
first application; and
(c) no rights are outstanding in that convention country in
connection with an earlier application.
(5) An application which has been withdrawn, abandoned or
refused shall not, after the filing of a subsequent application relating
to the same subject matter, be capable of supporting a claim for
priority under this section, unless a right of priority is outstanding in
Zambia or in any convention country in connection with the first
application.
(6) Where a person makes an application for the registration
of a design and the application is—
(a) in accordance with the terms of a treaty subsisting between
any two or more convention countries, equivalent to an application
duly made in any one of those convention countries; or
(b) in accordance with the law of any convention country,
equivalent to an application made in that convention country: the
person shall, for the purposes of this section, be considered to have
applied in a convention country.
(7) Where priority is not claimed within the period specified in
subsection (1), the right of priority shall lapse.