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Collective marks and certification signs shall be registered in a special section of
the marks register.
Crafts products shall be registered in a special section of the register of
traditional knowledge. All entries provided for under this Law shall be made in
said registers.
Anyone may consult the registers and obtain excerpts therefrom subject to the
conditions provided for in the regulations.
Article 465: Right holders may indicate ownership of the subject of protection in accordance
with this Law by relying on commonly used signs, namely, the initials of each
legal title surrounded by a circle, provided that these initials do not lead to
confusion and are not erroneous. The traditional knowledge and the crafts
products registered may be indicated by the initials “TK”, surrounded by a
circle. Any use of these signs which leads to confusion or which is erroneous
may be considered an act of unfair competition for the purposes of Part IV of
this Law.
Article 466: The service for registration of industrial property shall publish in the Official
Journal of Burundi all publications provided for by this Law.
The Industrial Property Director may publish administrative instructions
concerning the procedures provided for by this Law and by the regulations as
well as the other functions for the industrial property registration service.
Article 467: A special law shall fix the rates and arrangements for the fees for applications
for the grant of a patent or the registration of an industrial design, a mark or
collective mark, and other formalities provided for by this Law.
Article 468: The holder of an industrial property right whose usual residence or main
establishment is located outside Burundi must be represented either by a legal
advisor who resides and practices in Burundi, or by a natural person or legal
entity with professional experience in the field of industrial property who/which
resides and exercises his/its profession of legal consultant in Burundi.
Section 2: Correction of errors and extension of deadlines
Article 469: The Industrial Property Director may, subject to the provisions of the
regulations, correct any translation or transcription error, any material error or
oversight noted in an application or a document filed with the service for
registration of industrial property, or in an entry made in accordance with this
Law and the regulations.
Nevertheless, substantive errors may only be changed by the court within the
framework of the procedure provided for this purpose.
“Substantive error” shall be defined as an error which, once it has been
corrected, has an impact on the rights conferred.