Patents
[No. 40 of 2016
110. (1) A utility model certificate shall be granted for an
invention which is new, capable of industrial application and complies
with the relevant provisions of this Act.
(2) In this section “invention” means form, configuration or
disposition of elements of an appliance, electrical and electronic
circuitry, instrument, handicraft, mechanical working tools or articles
of everyday use, in so far as they are capable of contributing some
benefit or new effect with regard to saving of time, energy and
labour or allowing a better or different function, use, processing or
manufacture of the subject matter, and includes micro-organisms
or self replicating material and products of genetic resources, which
give new effects.
111. (1) Subject to this Act, every utility model certificate,
granted in accordance with this Act, shall be dated as of the date
on which the application for the protection of the utility model was
filed with the Registrar.
(2) The date of a utility model certificate shall be inserted in or
on the utility model.
(3) Subject to this Act, the term of a utility model certificate
shall be ten years from the date of filing of the application for the
protection of the utility model with the Registrar.
(4) Despite anything contained in this Part, a suit or other
proceedings shall not be commenced in respect of an infringement
committed before the date of publication of an application for a
utility model certificate.
112. (1) An applicant for the grant of a patent or a utility
model certificate may, convert, on payment of the prescribed fee,
the patent application into an application for a utility model certificate
or the utility application into an application for the grant of a patent.
(2) A conversion for an application, referred to in subsection
(1), shall not be made twice.
(3) The Registrar shall maintain a record of particulars of utility
model certificates granted, in accordance with this Act, and with
all other matters related to utility models under a designated part of
the Register.
113. (1) A utility model granted by ARIPO, in accordance
with the Harare Protocol, shall have effect in Zambia in a like
manner as a utility model granted in accordance with this Act,
except where the Registrar communicates to ARIPO a decision,
in accordance with the Harare Protocol, that such a utility model
shall not have legal effect in Zambia.
849
Utility model
certificate
Date and
term of utility
model
Conversion
of
application
ARIPO
utility model