1° from the date of first use of the layout -design, anywhere in the world, by the owner or
with his consent, provided that an application for protection is filed by the owner with the
competent authority of his place of residence, within the period referred to in paragraph 2
of article 108 of this law;
2° from the filing date assigned to the application for registration of the layout- design, filed
by the owner, if the layout -design has not previously been used for commercial purposes
anywhere in the world.
The protection granted to a layout-design under this Law shall cease at the end of the tenth
calendar year following the date on which it took effect.
SECTION 6: CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP, LICENSES
Article 121: Transfer of ownership, rectification of the register
Where the essential content of the application has been borrowed from the layout-design of a
third party without his or her consent, this third party may, on a written request, ask the
empowered authority to transfer the application to him or her.
Where the application has already given rise to a registration, this third party may, within a
period of three (3) years from the publication of the registration, on a written request, ask the
empowered authority to transfer the registration to him or her and, consequently, to rectify the
register.
The empowered authority shall immediately send a copy of the request to the owner. The
owner may, within the prescribed period and in the requisite manner, provide the empowered
authority with a report detailing his means of defence.
If the owner sends such a report, the empowered authority shall submit a copy of the request
to the author and, after hearing the parties, if one or both of them wish to be heard, and
conducting a substantive examination, it shall decide whether the application or the
registration should be transferred and, where appropriate, the register should be rectified.
Article 122: Change of ownership
Any owner’s change of a protected layout- design shall be recorded in writing.
The change in ownership of a layout-design already registered shall be submitted by the
interested party to the empowered authority which shall enter it in the register after the
payment of the prescribed fee and publish a reference thereto within a period of thirty (30)
days starting from the period of the payment of the fee.
The change in ownership of a layout-design shall have effect with regard to third parties only
once the registration has been made.