LAWS OF MALAWI
Registered Designs
(2)
13.
Registered Designs
Cap. 49:05
(c)
in the case of a new or original textile design intended for registration, the
acceptance of a first and confidential order for goods bearing the design; or
(d)
the communication of the design by the proprietor thereof to a Government
department or to any person authorized by the Minister to consider the merits of
the design, or of anything done in consequence of such a communication.
Where copyright under any written law relating to copyright subsists in an artistic work,
and an application is made by, or with the consent of, the owner of that copyright for the
registration of a corresponding design, that design shall not be treated for the purposes of
this Act as being other than new or original by reason only of any use previously made
of the artistic work, unless (a)
the previous use consisted of or included the sale, letting for hire, or offer for
sale or hire of articles to which the design in question (or a design differing
from it only as mentioned in section 7 (2)) had been applied industrially, other
than articles of a description specified in regulations made under section 7 (3);
and
(b)
that previous use was made by, or with the consent of, the owner of the
copyright in the artistic work.
(1) Any person who qualifies under Article 2 or 3 of the Convention and who has applied for
protection for any design in a convention country, or his legal representative or assignee (if such
assignee is also so qualified), may make an application for registration of that design in priority to
other applicants; and the registration 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
Convention arrangements
date of the first such application:
Provided that:(a)
the application for registration is made within six months from the date of the
application for protection I the convention country or, where more than one
such application for protection has been made, from the date of the first
application.
(b)
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 under this Act is issued.
(2)
An application for the registration of a design made by virtue of this section shall not be
refused, and the registration of a design on such an application shall not be invalidated,
by reason only of the registration or publication of the design in Malawi during the
period specified in subsection (1) (a) 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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