officer;
“Tribunal” means the Intellectual Property Tribunal established by section 3 of the
Intellectual Property Tribunal Act [Chapter 26:06].
PART II
DESIGNS OFFICE, OFFICERS AND REGISTER
3
Designs Office, Controller, registrars and other officers
(1) The Industrial Designs Office established by subsection (1) of section 3 of the
Industrial Designs Act [Chapter 26:02] shall be responsible for registering layoutdesigns and for exercising all the other functions of the Designs Office in terms of
this Act.
(2) The Controller shall exercise general supervision and direction of the Designs
Office in the exercise of its functions under this Act.
(3) Every registrar of industrial designs referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (3)
of section 3 of the Industrial Designs Act [Chapter 26:02] shall have power, subject to
the Controller’s general supervision and direction, to exercise the functions of the
Registrar under this Act or any other enactment.
(4) If the Controller so directs, an officer referred to in paragraph (b) of subsection (3)
of section 3 of the Industrial Designs Act [Chapter 26:02] shall have power, subject to
the Controller’s general supervision and direction, to exercise any function of the
Registrar under this Act or any other enactment.
4
Seal
The seal of the Patent Office kept in terms of the Patents Act shall also be the seal of
the Designs Office for the purposes of this Act, and impressions thereof made for the
purposes of this Act shall be judicially noticed.
5
Register of Integrated Circuit Layout-Designs
There shall be kept at the Designs Office for the purposes of this Act a Register of
Integrated Circuit Layout-Designs, in which shall be entered—
(a)
particulars of all registered layout-designs in force, including—
(i)
the names and addresses of their proprietors; and
(ii)
the effective date of their registration; and
(iii)
the date of their first commercial exploitation, where that date was
specified when application was made for their registration;
and
(b)
particulars of assignments and transmissions of registered layoutdesigns; and
(c)
everything which is required by or under this Act to be entered in the
Register; and
(d)
such other things relating to registered layout-designs as the Registrar
thinks necessary or desirable to enter in the Register.
6
Inspection of Register and right to obtain copies of entries therein
The Register shall be open to inspection by the public at all convenient times, and a
certified copy, sealed with the seal of the Patent Office, of any entry in the Register
shall be given on payment of the prescribed fee to any person who requires it.
PART III
REGISTRABLE LAYOUT-DESIGNS, PROPRIETORSHIP AND PROCEEDINGS
FOR REGISTRATION
7
Layout-designs that may be registered
(1) Subject to this Act, a layout-design shall be capable of registration only if—
(a)
it is original within the meaning of subsection (2); and
(b)
it has not yet been exploited commercially anywhere in the world, or
has not been exploited commercially anywhere in the world for more than two years
prior to the application for its registration, anywhere in the world.
(2) A layout-design shall be considered to be original if it is the result of its creator’s
own intellectual effort and is not commonplace among creators of layout-designs and
manufacturers of integrated circuits at the time of its creation.