the copyright in the artistic work.
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Convention applications
(1) The registration of a design as a result of an application by a person in terms of
subsection (2), as read with subsection (3), of section eight shall have the same date
as the date of the application in the Convention country or, where more than one such
application for protection has been made, the date of the first such application:
Provided that no proceedings shall be taken in respect of any infringement of
copyright in that design committed before the date on which the certificate of
registration thereof is issued.
(2) A Convention application shall not be refused, and the registration of a design on
such an application shall not be held to be invalid, by reason only of the registration
or publication of the design in Zimbabwe during the period specified in the proviso to
subsection (2) of section eight as that within which the application for registration
may be made.
(3) Where an applicant referred to in subsection (1) has applied for protection for any
design by an application which, 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 that Convention
country.
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Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs
(1) Subject to this section, the Protocol set out in the Schedule, which was contracted
within the framework of the African Regional Industrial Property Organization, shall
have the force of law within Zimbabwe.
(2) Any industrial design, in respect of which Zimbabwe is a designated State,
registered in accordance with the Protocol set out in the Schedule shall have, mutatis
mutandis, the same effect in Zimbabwe as an industrial design granted under this Act
subject to such exceptions, additions, adaptations and modifications as may be
necessary to provisions of the Protocol.
(3) Subject to subsection (2) of section eight, an industrial design registered under the
Protocol set out in the Schedule, shall have, mutatis mutandis, such protection, where
applicable, as is afforded under the Patents Act [Chapter 26:03] to a patent granted in
fulfilment of any international agreement in respect of a Convention country under
the provisions of section 80 of that Act.
PART IV
EFFECT OF REGISTRATION, ETC.
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Right given by registration
(1) The registration of a design under this Act shall give to the registered proprietor
the copyright in the registered design, that is to say, the exclusive right in Zimbabwe
to make, import or export for sale or for use for the purposes of any trade or business
or to sell, hire or offer for sale or hire any article in respect of which the design is
registered, being an article to which the registered design or a design not substantially
different from the registered design has been applied, and to make anything for
enabling any such article to be made as aforesaid.
[Amended by Act 25 of 2001 with effect from the 1st March, 2002.]
(2) Subject to this Act, the registration of a design shall have the same effect against
the State as it has against a subject.
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Period of copyright in registered design and renewal of registration
(1) Copyright in a registered design shall subsist for so long as the design remains
registered.
(2) The registration of a design shall be for a period of ten years, but the proprietor
may renew it for a single further period of five years in accordance with this section.
(3) An application for the renewal of the registration of a registered design shall be
made in the prescribed form and manner and within the prescribed period.
(4) Before the expiry of the initial ten-year registration of a design, the Registrar shall
notify the design’s proprietor in the prescribed manner of the date on which the