Industrial Property Bill Signed Into Law On January 06, 2014

The Industrial Property Bill that was passed on the 22nd August 2013 was accepted into Ugandan law on the 6th January 2014. This Bill brings about various changes in the law protecting inventions, creations and designs in Uganda, and is intended to support development in the private sector and promote private investment.

Uganda, being a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a member of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO); a signatory to the Paris Convention, the TRIPS agreement (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), the Patent Co-Operation Treaty and a user of the Nice classification of goods and services, was obligated to expeditiously enact the Industrial Property Bill of 2009 into their law.

This Bill was drafted to attempt to bring about the following:

The promotion of innovative and inventive activity within Uganda; The facilitation of the acquisition of technology through the regulation of intellectual property including patents, designs and utility models; and The establishment of the Registrar and definition of the powers and the functions of the Registrar, so as to ensure proper administration of patents; The increase of capacity and skills of examiners in the Ugandan Patent Office; and The establishment of a special institution for the development of Intellectual Property. Some of the changes made include TRIPS agreement compliant provisions excluding pharmaceutical inventions from protection (section 8(3)(f)); patentability criteria relating to novelty assessment, patentability of new uses for known products and processes (Section 38), a replacement of the requirement of a best mode of carrying out an invention with the less stringent requirement that at least one mode is provided, the introduction of a "Bolar-type" in Section 44 that provides that it is not an act of infringement to carry out any acts including testing, using, making or selling a patented invention solely for the purposes reasonably related to the development and submission of information required under any law of Uganda or of another country which regulates the...