2° a patent of a layout-design claiming the product or the process for its manufacture is in
force in the territory from which the product will be imported and is owned by the same
person who owns the patent of a layout- design in Rwanda or by a person under his or her
control.
If the importer of the product fails to fulfill the purpose that justified the Minister’s decision
to consider the patent rights of a layout-design exhausted, the Minister shall, ex officio, or at
the request of the patent owner of a layout- design, cancel the authorization.
If the conditions that gave rise to the Minister’s decision to consider the patent of a layout design exhausted cease to exist, the Minister may, ex officio or at the request of the patent or
trademark owner of a layout-design, cancel the authorization, provided that the legitimate
interests of the importer are taken into account, including but not exclusively that the importer
will retain the right to commercialize the products that remain on stock.
Article 119: Other limitations to layout- design rights
The protection granted to a layout-design under this Law shall not extend to the:
1° reproduction of the protected layout-design for private purposes or for the sole purpose of
evaluation, analysis, research or education;
2° incorporation, in an integrated circuit, of a layout design created on the basis of such an
analysis or evaluation and itself exhibiting originality under article 109 of this Law, or to
the performance, with regard to this layout design, of any of the acts referred to in article
116 of this Law;
3° performance of any of the acts referred to in point 2 of paragraph one of article 116 of this
Law, as regards an integrated circuit incorporating a layout design reproduced unlawfully,
or of any article incorporating such an integrated circuit, where the person performing this
act, or having it performed, did not know and had no valid reason to know, when
purchasing the integrated circuit or the article incorporating such a circuit, that it
incorporated a layout design reproduced unlawfully. Once this person has been duly
informed, however, that the layout design has been reproduced unlawfully, he may
perform any of the aforementioned acts relating only to the stocks held or which he had
ordered prior to being thus informed, and shall pay the owner a sum equivalent to the
reasonable fee which could be demanded under a license freely negotiated for such a
layout- design;
4° performance of any of the acts referred to in point 2 of paragraph one of article 116 of
this Law, where the act is performed in relation to an original identical layout -design
which has been created independently by a third party.
Article 120: Commencement and duration of protection
The protection granted to a layout-design under this Law shall take effect: