Under the Act, a proprietor may initiate legal proceedings for actual or imminent infringement of a patent. The remedies available to a successful proprietor in an action for infringement are in essence injunctive relief and damages. The Act makes provision for the issue of a utility certificate which affords protection to an owner of a useful innovation who may otherwise be unable to meet the strict prerequisite to obtain a patent certificate. The criteria for the grant of a utility certificate is novelty and industrial application. An applicant for a utility certificate may apply to convert the application to a certificate of patent in prescribed circumstances.
Innovations endure for a period of seven years from the date of filing.
Under the PCT system, international applications for the protection of inventions can now be filed through a single application and search as opposed to the filing of a number of separate foreign applications within the priority year as obtains under the traditional procedure. The system, which is administered by WIPO, Geneva, provides for an international phase and a national phase. After the search and in some cases a preliminary examination, the application will be sent to the national or regional office for decision on the grant of the patent in that territory. The duration of the patent registration is twenty years from the date of filing. The law provides for registration of service marks, collective marks, and certification marks and adopts the International Classification of Goods and Services pursuant to the Nice Agreement.