WIPO Database of Intellectual Property
Legislative Texts
SOUTH AFRICA
“convention country” means any country or group of countries in respect of which there is in
force a proclamation under section 63 declaring such country or group of countries to be a convention
country or convention countries for the purposes of this Act;
“court” means the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, but in
relation to any claim or counterclaim for removal, amendment or variation of, or other relief affecting
any entry in, the register arising from or forming part of proceedings instituted in any other division of
the said Supreme Court having jurisdiction in relation to the proceedings, includes that division in
respect of such claim or counterclaim;
“deed of security” means a written instrument signed by the proprietor of a registered trade
mark hypothecating the registered trade mark;
“device” means any visual representation or illustration capable of being reproduced upon a
surface, whether by printing, embossing or by any other means;
“limitation” means any limitation of the exclusive right to the use of a trade mark given by the
registration thereof, including a limitation of that right as to the mode of use, as to use in relation to
goods to be sold, or otherwise traded in, or as to services to be performed, in any place within the
Republic, or as to use in relation to goods to be exported from the Republic;
“mark” means any sign capable of being represented graphically, including a device, name,
signature, word, letter, numeral, shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation, colour or container for
goods or any combination of the aforementioned;
“Minister” means the Minister of Trade and Industry;
“Paris Convention” means the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property of 20
March 1883 as revised or amended from time to time and as acceded to by the Republic;
“patent agent” means a patent agent registered or deemed to be registered as such under the
Patents Act, 1978 (Act No. 57 of 1978);
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulation;
“register” means the register of trade marks kept at the trade marks office in terms of
section 22;
“registered trade mark” means a trade mark registered or deemed to be registered under this
Act;
“registered user” means a person who is for the time being registered as such under section 38;
“registrar” means the registrar of trade marks appointed or deemed to have been appointed
under section 6;
“regulation” means any regulation made under this Act;
“repealed Act” means the Trade Marks Act, 1963 (Act No. 62 of 1963);
“services” includes the offering for sale or the sale of goods in the retail or wholesale trade;
“this Act” includes the regulations;
“trade mark”, other than a certification trade mark or a collective trade mark, means a mark
used or proposed to be used by a person in relation to goods or services for the purpose of
distinguishing the goods or services in relation to which the mark is used or proposed to be used from
the same kind of goods or services connected in the course of trade with any other person;
”transmission” means transfer by operation of law, not being assignment, and “transmit” and
“transmissible” have corresponding meanings.
(2) References in this Act to the use of a mark shall be construed as references to –
(a)
the use of a visual representation of the mark;
(b)
in the case of a container, the use of such container; and
(c)
in the case of a mark which is capable of being audibly reproduced, the use of an audible
reproduction of the mark.
(3)
(a) References in this Act to the use of a mark in relation to goods shall be construed as
references to the use thereof upon, or in physical or other relation to, such goods.
ZA009EN
Marks, Act, 22/12/1993, No. 194
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