“patented article” means any article in respect of which a patent has been granted and
is for the time being in force;
“Tribunal” means the Intellectual Property Tribunal established by section 3 of the
Intellectual Property Tribunal Act [Chapter 26:06];
[inserted by Act 9 of 2002, with effect from the 20th December, 2002.]
“published” means made available to the public and, without prejudice to the
generality of the foregoing provision, a document shall be deemed, for the purposes
of this Act, to be published if it can be inspected as of right by members of the public,
whether upon payment of a fee or otherwise;
“Register” means the Register of Patents kept at the Patent Office under section five;
“Register of Patent Agents” means the Register of Patent Agents kept under
subsection (1) of section sixty-four;
“Registrar” means the Controller or a registrar of patents appointed in terms of
paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of section three;
“repealed legislation” means the Patents Act, 1957 (No. 13 of 1957) or the Patents
Act [Chapter 222 of 1939];
“specification” means a provisional or a complete specification, as the circumstances
may require, referred to in section nine;
(2) Subject to sections nineteen, forty, eighty and eighty-three, an invention shall be
deemed to be new for the purposes of this Act if on or before the effective date of the
application for a patent in respect thereof the invention was not—
(a)
known or used anywhere in Zimbabwe by anyone other than the
applicant or his agent or the person or persons from or through whom such applicant
has derived his right or title:
Provided that secret knowledge or secret user otherwise than on a
commercial scale shall be disregarded; or
(b)
worked anywhere in Zimbabwe otherwise than by way of reasonable
technical trial or experiment by the applicant or any person or persons from or
through whom such applicant has derived his right or title; or
(c)
described in a patent specification available to public inspection in
accordance with any repealed legislation or this Act; or
(d)
described in writing or in any other way in any publication of which
there was a copy anywhere in or outside Zimbabwe at the effective date of the
application; or
(e)
claimed in any complete specification for a patent which was lodged
in accordance with any repealed legislation or this Act and which, though not
available to public inspection at the effective date of the application, was deposited
pursuant to an application for a patent which is, or will be, of prior date to the date of
any patent which may be granted in respect of the said invention.
(3) A reference in this Act to the date of a patent shall be construed as a reference to
the appropriate date specified in subsection (1) of section twenty-three.
2A
Inventions for which patent may not be granted
A patent shall not be granted under this Act for¾
(a)
diagnostic, therapeutic or surgical methods for the treatment of human
beings or animals; or
(b)
plants and animals, other than micro-organisms; or
(c)
essentially biological processes for the production of plants or
animals, other than microbiological processes.
[inserted by Act 9 of 2002, with effect from the 20th December, 2002.]
PART II
ADMINISTRATION
3
Patent Office, Controller, registrars of patents and other officers
(1) There shall be established an office, to be called the Patent Office, for the
registration of patents and other matters in terms of this Act.
(2) There shall be—