530 Right of priority No. 22 of 2016] Industrial Design 28. (1) Subject to this Act, a person who has filed an application for the registration of a design in a convention country shall, in relation to the registration of the same design in Zambia, have a right of priority for a period not exceeding six months from the date of filing the conventional application. (2) A right of priority referred to in subsection (1), shall be capable of being assigned or transmitted with the application or independent of the application. (3) An assignment or transmission or a right of priority referred to in subsection (1), shall be in writing and if not so done shall have no legal effect. (4) Where a subsequent application for the registration of a design is filed in a convention country, following an earlier application, in respect of the same design, such subsequent application shall be considered to be the first application in that country in respect of that design if, at the time of filing the application— (a) the previous application had been withdrawn, abandoned or refused without having been opened to public inspection; (b) no priority rights have been claimed on the basis of the first application; and (c) no rights are outstanding in that convention country in connection with an earlier application. (5) An application which has been withdrawn, abandoned or refused shall not, after the filing of a subsequent application relating to the same subject matter, be capable of supporting a claim for priority under this section, unless a right of priority is outstanding in Zambia or in any convention country in connection with the first application. (6) Where a person makes an application for the registration of a design and the application is— (a) in accordance with the terms of a treaty subsisting between any two or more convention countries, equivalent to an application duly made in any one of those convention countries; or (b) in accordance with the law of any convention country, equivalent to an application made in that convention country: the person shall, for the purposes of this section, be considered to have applied in a convention country. (7) Where priority is not claimed within the period specified in subsection (1), the right of priority shall lapse.