ZAMBIA

Please select your desired region

Please select your practice area

Patent

Forms part of

  • ARIPO
  • OAPI
  • PARIS CONVENTION
  • PCT
  • ZAMBIA
  • ARIPO
  • OAPI

Paris Convention;
ARIPO (Harare Protocol);
PCT; and
WTO/TRIPS.

Patents for inventions; and
Patents of addition.

An invention is new if it has not been publicly used, worked, or publicly made known in Zambia, or described in books or other printed publications published anywhere, before the application or priority date.

More specifically the Act provides that an invention is new if it was not –

  • known or used in Zambia or the territories of the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland by anyone other than the applicant (secret knowledge or use being excluded);
  • worked anywhere in the territories by the applicant otherwise than by way of reasonable technical trial or experiment;
  • described in a patent specification available to public inspection and with a date less than 50 years prior to the effective date of the application;
  • described in writing in any publication of which there was a copy anywhere in the territories, or a publication printed and published elsewhere less than 50 years prior to the effective date of the application; and
  • claimed in a complete specification in an application with an earlier effective date.

Novelty of an invention is not destroyed by disclosure prior to the application or convention priority date without the patentee’s knowledge or consent –

  • if the matter disclosed was derived or obtained from the patentee
  • if the invention had been used by the patentee or his predecessor in title in

Zambia prior to the application filing date or priority date, for the purpose of reasonable technical trial thereof and the application was filed with reasonable diligence after learning of the disclosure.

Patent applications are examined as to compliance with formal requirements. 

A patent is valid for 16 years calculated from the filing date.

Renewal fees are payable and are calculated from the first anniversary of filing. A six months grace period is provided for payment of renewal fees, subject to payment of surcharges. If a renewal fee is not paid within this period, the patent lapses.

Patent must be worked within four years from date of filing or three years from date of grant, whichever period expires last. A compulsory licence may be granted if patent is not worked.