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(b)
(c)
SOUTH AFRICA
mark under the laws of a country outside the Republic being a country under the laws of
which the registration referred to is in fact in force;
where that word (being a word other than the word “registered”), abbreviation, letter or
symbol is of itself such as to indicate that the reference is to such registration as is
referred to in paragraph (a); or
where the word, abbreviation, letter or symbol is used in relation to a mark registered as a
trade mark under the laws of a country outside the Republic and in relation to goods to be
exported to that country.
Part XVII
International Arrangements
63. International arrangements
(1) The State President may, with a view to the fulfilment of a treaty, convention, arrangement or
engagement, by proclamation in the Gazette declare that any country or group of countries specified in the
proclamation is a convention country or are convention countries for the purposes of all or any of the
provisions of this Act.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) every territory for whose international relations another country
is responsible shall be deemed to be a country in respect of which a declaration may be made under that
subsection.
(3) Any person who has applied for registration of a trade mark in a convention country, or his legal
representative or assignee, shall, in priority to other applicants, be entitled to registration of the trade mark
under this Act, and the registration shall have the same date as the date of the first application in the
convention country: Provided that –
(a)
application is made within six months after the date on which the application was made in
the convention country; and
(b)
nothing in this section contained shall entitle the proprietor of the trade mark to recover
damages for infringements happening prior to the actual date on which the application was
first advertised in the prescribed manner.
(4) Where applications have been made for the registration of a trade mark in two or more convention
countries, the period of six months referred to in subsection (1) shall be reckoned from the date on which the
earliest of those applications was made.
(5) Where a person has applied for protection for a trade mark by an application which –
(a)
in accordance with the terms of a treaty subsisting between any two or more convention
countries, is equivalent to an application duly made in any one of those convention
countries; or
(b)
in accordance with the law of any convention country, is equivalent to an application duly
made in that convention country,
he shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to have applied in any of those convention countries or in
that convention country.
(6) The registration of a trade mark shall not be invalidated by reason only of the use of the trade mark
in the Republic during the period specified in this section as that within which application may be made.
(7) The application for the registration of a trade mark under this section shall be made in the same
manner as an ordinary application under this Act, except that proof of application in a convention country
shall be established in the manner prescribed.
(8) A right to priority as contemplated in subsection (3) may be assigned or otherwise transmitted.
ZA009EN
Marks, Act, 22/12/1993, No. 194
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