Conversion of patent applications or applications for
utility model certificates
19.—(1) At any time before the grant or rejection of a patent, an applicant for a patent
may, upon payment of the prescribed fee, convert his application into an application for a
utility model certificate, which shall be accorded the filing date of the initial application.
(2) At any time before the grant or rejection of a utility model certificate, an applicant
for a utility model certificate may, upon payment of the prescribed fee, convert his application
into a patent application, which shall be accorded the filing date of the initial application.
(3) An application may not be converted under subsection (1) more than once.
Part IV
Industrial Designs
Registrable industrial designs
20.—(1) An industrial design is registrable if it is new.
(2) An industrial design shall be new if it has not been disclosed to the public,
(a) anywhere in the world, by publication in tangible form; or
(b) in Lesotho, by description or by use or in any other way,
prior to the filing date or, where applicable, prior to the priority date of the application for
registration.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), disclosure to the public of an industrial design
shall not be taken into consideration if it occurred within six months preceding the filing date
or, where applicable, the priority date of the application, and if it was by reason or in
consequence of acts committed by the applicant or his predecessor in title or of an abuse
committed by a third party with regard to the applicant or his predecessor in title.
(4) Industrial designs that are contrary to public order or morality shall not be
registrable.
Right to registration of industrial designs, naming of creator
21.—(1) Subject to this section, the right to registration of an industrial design shall
belong to the creator of that industrial design.
(2) If two or more persons have jointly created an industrial design, the right to the
registration of the industrial design shall belong to them jointly.
(3) If and to the extent to which two or more persons have created the same industrial
design independently of each other, the person whose application has the earliest filing date
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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