Patents [No. 40 of 2016 110. (1) A utility model certificate shall be granted for an invention which is new, capable of industrial application and complies with the relevant provisions of this Act. (2) In this section “invention” means form, configuration or disposition of elements of an appliance, electrical and electronic circuitry, instrument, handicraft, mechanical working tools or articles of everyday use, in so far as they are capable of contributing some benefit or new effect with regard to saving of time, energy and labour or allowing a better or different function, use, processing or manufacture of the subject matter, and includes micro-organisms or self replicating material and products of genetic resources, which give new effects. 111. (1) Subject to this Act, every utility model certificate, granted in accordance with this Act, shall be dated as of the date on which the application for the protection of the utility model was filed with the Registrar. (2) The date of a utility model certificate shall be inserted in or on the utility model. (3) Subject to this Act, the term of a utility model certificate shall be ten years from the date of filing of the application for the protection of the utility model with the Registrar. (4) Despite anything contained in this Part, a suit or other proceedings shall not be commenced in respect of an infringement committed before the date of publication of an application for a utility model certificate. 112. (1) An applicant for the grant of a patent or a utility model certificate may, convert, on payment of the prescribed fee, the patent application into an application for a utility model certificate or the utility application into an application for the grant of a patent. (2) A conversion for an application, referred to in subsection (1), shall not be made twice. (3) The Registrar shall maintain a record of particulars of utility model certificates granted, in accordance with this Act, and with all other matters related to utility models under a designated part of the Register. 113. (1) A utility model granted by ARIPO, in accordance with the Harare Protocol, shall have effect in Zambia in a like manner as a utility model granted in accordance with this Act, except where the Registrar communicates to ARIPO a decision, in accordance with the Harare Protocol, that such a utility model shall not have legal effect in Zambia. 849 Utility model certificate Date and term of utility model Conversion of application ARIPO utility model