LAWS OF MALAWI Registered Designs Registered Designs Cap. 49:05 PART III EFFECT OF REGISTRATION, ETC 14. (1) The registration of a design under this Act shall give to the registered proprietor the copyright in the registered design, that is to say, the exclusive right in Malawi to make or import for sale or for use for the purposes of any trade or business, or to sell, hire or offer for sale or hire, any article in respect of which the design is registered, being an article to which the registered design or a design not substantially different from the registered design has been applied, and to make Right given by registration anything for enabling any such article to be made as aforesaid.: (2) 15. Subject to this Act, the registration of a design shall have the same effect against the Government as it has against a subject.. (1) Copyright in a registered design shall, subject to this Act, subsist for a period of five years from the date of registration: (2) The Registrar shall extend the period of copyright for a second period of five years from the expiration of the original period and for a third period of five years from the expiration of the second period if an application for extension of the period of copyright for the second or third period is made in the prescribed form before the expiration of the original period or the second period, as the case may be, and if the prescribed fee is paid before the expiration of the relevant period or within such further period (not exceeding three months) as may be specified in a request made to the Registrar and accompanied by the prescribed additional fee. (3) Where in the case of a registered design it is shown:(a) that the design, at the time when it was registered, was a corresponding design in relation to an artistic work in which copyright subsisted under any written law; (b) that, by reason of a previous use of that artistic work, the design would not have been registrable under this Act but for section 12(2); and (c) that the copyright in that work under any written law relating to copyright expired before the date of expiry of the copyright in the design. Period of copyright The copyright in the design shall, notwithstanding anything in this section, be deemed to have expired at the same time as the copyright in the artistic work, and shall not be renewable after that time. 16. (1) In proceedings for the infringement of copyright in a registered design damages shall not be awarded against a defendant who proves that at the date of the infringement he was not aware, and had no reasonable ground for supposing, that the design was registered; and a person shall not be deemed to have been aware or to have had reasonable ground for supposing as aforesaid by reason only of the making of an article with the word “registered” or any abbreviation thereof, or any word or words expressing or implying that the design applied to the article has been registered, unless the number of the design accompanied the word or words or the abbreviation in Exemption of innocent question. infringer from liability for damages 11