Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office

The Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office (ZIPO) is a section of the Department of Deeds and Intellectual Property and is currently administered by the Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. The Department was established in 1897 as the Deeds Office with a secondary function as an intellectual property registry.

The main functions of ZIPO are the registration and maintenance of registers in respect of trade marks, patents, industrial designs, geographical indications and integrated circuit lay out designs under the respective local statutes and international treaties.

Zimbabwe is a party to various international treaties governing intellectual property and it is one of the functions of ZIPO to represent Zimbabwe in the international arena on intellectual property matters and to ensure that Zimbabwe meets its administrative obligations under the treaties.

Zimbabwe is, among others, a member of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) and a party to the Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs and the Banjul Protocol on Marks; it is a party to the Madrid Protocol, and ZIPO acts as an office of origin for individuals from Zimbabwe wishing to obtain international registrations through the Madrid system; and, it is also a contracting party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and ZIPO acts as a receiving office under the PCT.

L Takaendesa
Partner
Intellectual Property Department

By Lorraine Takaendesa|2019-06-12T05:52:08+02:00August 4th, 2017|Copyright, Patents, Trade Marks|Comments Off

About the Author: Lorraine Takaendesa

Lorraine Takaendesa is a Partner in the Intellectual Property Department. She holds an LLB from University of South Africa. She commenced her legal career in 2007 and joined Honey & Blanckenberg in 2014. She specialises in intellectual property law including trade mark portfolio management, registration of trade marks, patents, industrial designs and utility models, enforcement of intellectual property rights, including trade mark oppositions, infringement litigation and anti-counterfeiting. She has been involved in a number of anti-counterfeiting seizures in Zimbabwe. She sits on the Council of the Zimbabwe Institute of Trade Marks and Patents Attorneys, she is a member of the International Trade Marks Association (INTA) and she is an active participant of the ARIPO Working Group on the Improvement of the ARIPO Protocols.