virtue of any assignment or agreement or by operation of law, been transferred to the
claimant, the claimant shall be regarded, for the purposes of subsection (1), as though
he were the joint inventor.
43
Disputes as to inventions made by employees
(1) Where a dispute arises between an employer and a person who is or was at the
material time his employee as to the rights of the parties in respect of an invention
made by the employee, either alone or jointly with other employees, or in respect of
any patent granted or to be granted in respect thereof, the Registrar may, upon
application made to him in the prescribed manner by either of the parties and after
giving to each of them an opportunity to be heard, determine the matter in dispute and
may make such orders for giving effect to his decision as he considers expedient.
(2) A decision of the Registrar under subsection (1) shall have the same effect as
between the parties and persons claiming under them as a decision of the Tribunal.
(3) An appeal shall lie from any decision of the Registrar under subsection (1).
44
Avoidance of certain restrictive conditions in contracts
(1) Subject to subsection (2), it shall not be lawful in any contract made after the
appointed day in relation to the sale or lease of or a licence to use or work any article
or process protected by a patent to insert a condition the effect of which will be—
(a)
to prohibit or restrict the purchaser, lessee or licensee from using any
article or class of articles, whether patented or not, or any patented process supplied
or owned by any person other than the seller, lessor or licenser or his nominee; or
(b)
to require the purchaser, lessee or licensee to acquire from the seller,
lessor or licenser or his nominee any article or class of articles not protected by the
patent;
and any such condition shall be null and void, as being in restraint of trade and
contrary to public policy.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply if—
(a)
the seller, lessor or licenser proves that at the time the contract was
entered into the purchaser, lessee or licensee had the option of purchasing the article
or obtaining a lease or licence on reasonable terms without the conditions referred to
in subsection (1); and
(b)
the contract entitles the purchaser, lessee or licensee to relieve himself
of his liability to observe any such condition on giving the other party three months’
notice in writing and on payment, if the Tribunal so directs, of compensation for such
relief, in the case of a purchase of such sum, or in case of a lease or licence of such
rent or royalty, for the residue of the term of the contract, as may be fixed by the
Tribunal.
(3) Any contract relating to the lease of or licence to use or work any patented article
or patented process may, at any time after the patent or all the patents by which the
article or process was protected in Zimbabwe at the time of the making of the contract
has or have ceased to be in force, and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the
same or in any other contract, be determined by either party on giving three months’
notice in writing to the other party.
(4) Nothing in this section shall—
(a)
affect any condition in a contract whereby any person is prohibited
from selling any goods other than those of a particular person;
(b)
be construed as validating any contract which would, apart from this
section, be invalid;
(c)
affect any right of determining a contract or condition in a contract
exercisable independently of this section;
(d)
affect any condition in a contract for the lease of or a licence to use a
patented article whereby the lessor or licenser reserves to himself or his nominee the
right to supply such new parts of the patented article as may be required to put or
keep it in repair.
45
Revocation of patents