Part III
Utility Model Certificates
Applicability of provisions relating to patents
17.—(1) Subject to section 18, the provisions of Part II shall apply, mutatis mutandis,
to utility model certificates or applications therefor, as the case may be.
(2) Where the right to a patent conflicts with the right to a utility model certificate in
the case referred to in section 6(3), the said provision shall apply as if the word “patent” were
replaced by the words “patent or utility model certificate.”
Special provisions relating to utility model certificates
18.—(1) An invention qualifies for a utility model certificate if it is new and is
industrially applicable.
(2) Section 5(1) shall not apply in the case of inventions for which utility model
certificates are requested.
(3) Section 11(6) shall not apply in the case of applications for utility model
certificates.
(4) A utility model certificate shall expire, without any possibility of renewal, at the
end of the seventh year after the date of the filing of the application.
(5) With the exception of subsection (5) thereof, section 14 shall not apply in the case
of utility model certificates.
(6) In proceedings under section 16, the court shall invalidate the utility model
certificates on the following grounds,
(a) that the claimed invention did not qualify for a utility model certificate, having
regard to subsection (1) and to section 5(2), (3), (4), (6) and (8);
(b) that the description and the claims do not comply with the requirements prescribed
by section 7(4), (5) and (6) and the regulations pertaining thereto;
(c) that any drawing which is necessary for the understanding of the invention has not
been furnished;
(d) that the owner of the utility model certificate is not the inventor or his successor in
title.
(7) Section 16(2) shall not apply in the case of utility model certificates.
LESOTHO
Industrial Property Order, 1989 (Order No. 5 of 1989, as last amended by Act No. 4 of 1997)
[LS 1-001]
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