“invention” means an idea of an inventor which permits in practice the solution to a
specific problem in the field of technology;
“mark” means any visible sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of an
enterprise;
“Minister” means the Minister of Law, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs;
“Paris Convention” means the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
of March 20, 1883, as last revised;
“patent” means the title granted to protect an invention in accordance with section 5;
“Patent Cooperation Treaty” means the Patent Cooperation Treaty done at Washington
on June 19, 1970;
“priority date” means the date of the earlier application that serves as the basis for the
right of priority provided for in the Paris Convention;
“Receiving office” has the same meaning as in the Patent Cooperation Treaty;
“registers” means the registers referred to in section 39(1);
“Registrar” means the person holding office in terms of section 37;
“regulations” means regulations made under section 45;
“trade name” means the name or designation identifying and distinguishing an
enterprise;
“utility model certificate” means a certificate referred to in section 18.
Part II
Patents
Inventions
3. Subject to section 4, an invention may be or may relate to a product or a process.
Matters excluded from patent protection
4. The following, even if they are inventions in terms of section 2, shall be excluded
from patent protection,
(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
(b) plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of
plants or animals, other than microbiological processes and the products of such processes;

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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