Protecting Brands in Zambia: Powerful Customs Measures and New Arbitration Avenues

March 12, 2026 /Mpelembe Media/ — The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) serves as a collaborative hub for 22 member nations to streamline the protection of patents, trademarks, and industrial designs through centralized protocols like the Harare Agreement. While ARIPO facilitates cross-border registration via digital tools and online gazettes, nations such as Zambia maintain their own robust legal frameworks, including the Industrial Property Act of 2017. Managed by PACRA, Zambia’s domestic system is currently transitioning to mandatory online trademark filings to improve administrative efficiency and align with international standards. Despite these modernizing efforts, experts argue for deeper regional integration within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to better address public health and traditional knowledge. Current assessments, such as the Global Innovation Index, show that while Zambia shows strength in infrastructure, it still faces challenges in translating investments into high-level innovation outputs. Regional cooperation remains a vital strategy for these developing economies to pool limited resources and foster a predictable environment for global investors.

1. Introduction: The Quiet Revolution in African IP

For decades, intellectual property (IP) was dismissed as a dry, legalistic maze—a paper-heavy hurdle for corporate specialists rather than a catalyst for national growth. But in Southern Africa, a quiet revolution is rewriting the code of ownership. Zambia, in tandem with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), is emerging as a high-stakes laboratory for modern innovation law. This isn’t just about protecting corporate logos; it is a radical shift where sensory experiences—sounds, smells, and shapes—and the ancestral wisdom of rural elders are being codified as the new currency of economic resilience. In this emerging landscape, the traditional understanding of “property” is being turned on its head.

2. Trademarks You Can Smell: The New Sensory Frontier

Zambia has officially entered the era of the sensory-driven economy with the  Trade Marks Act No. 11 of 2023 . Operationalized on December 31, 2025, this legislation didn’t just update the law; it demolished the outdated 1958 Act that had anchored Zambian branding in the mid-20th century.The Act introduces a:”modern, expansive definition of ‘mark’ to include device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, smell, sound, word, letter, numeral, shape of goods, packaging or combination of colours.”For the modern strategist, this means audio signatures, distinctive fragrances, and complex trade dress are now registrable. However, there is a critical legal caveat: the Registrar will  not  register marks consisting exclusively of a shape resulting from the nature of the good, or one necessary to achieve a technical result.The Strategist’s Warning on the Madrid Protocol:  While the 2023 Act formally domesticates the Madrid Protocol—the international system for registering marks—the necessary implementing regulations have not yet been issued. In practice, this means the international “Madrid pathway” is currently a ghost road. For now, national applications remain the only viable route to securing protection in the Zambian market.

3. The Climate Resilience Secret: Ancestral Wisdom Meets Modern Science

If the 2023 Act represents the high-tech future of branding, Zambia’s next innovation secret is buried deep in its soil—and its past. In the village of Sichibende, Nyimba District, a project known as  FACE-NDC  (Facility for Action for Climate Empowerment) is proving that “ancestral wisdom” is a primary strategy for future food security.Led by the FAO and the  Sichibende Information Centre , this initiative blends behavioral science with Indigenous Knowledge (TK) to combat climate devastation. Under the framework of the  Swakopmund Protocol , Zambia is working to protect this knowledge from “misappropriation and unlawful exploitation.” In the brutal calculus of climate change, the erasure of indigenous tree species isn’t just a cultural tragedy; it’s a systemic collapse of a community’s food-security infrastructure.Local elder Nelson Banda captures the stakes:”The indiscriminate cutting of trees has devastated the availability of wild fruits that were once a staple of our diet and part of our rich biodiversity.”By recognizing that traditional ecological practices are intellectual assets, Zambia is ensuring that the road to resilience is paved with historic rights rather than forgotten heritage.

4. The Death of the Paper Application: July 1st and the Digital Mandate

In the race for regional competitiveness, bureaucracy is the primary enemy. As of  July 1, 2025 , the Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) enacted a hard transition that effectively killed the paper-based trademark application for agents.Under Registrar and CEO Benson Mpalo, PACRA ceased accepting physical submissions, mandating a 100% online filing system to ensure “operational efficiency and digitisation.” This isn’t just a procedural update; it is a move toward a frictionless regional economy.The Digital Deadline: Key Facts

Effective Date:  July 1, 2025

Mandate:  100% online filing for agent submissions via the PACRA portal.

Strategic Goal:  Ensure transparency and timely processing in a competitive market.

Strategist’s Tip:  Ensure all digital certificates are verified via the PACRA portal; physical receipts no longer carry legal weight for agent submissions.

5. The Sovereignty Paradox: Why Regional Integration is the Next Big Hurdle

Zambia currently navigates a “Sovereignty Paradox.” While trade is becoming borderless through the SADC Free Trade Agreement (FTA), IP rights remain largely trapped by the “territoriality principle.”In the ARIPO system, national offices retain substantive autonomy, leading to a “fragmentation of rights.” A business must navigate a different legal regime in every jurisdiction, a reality that acts as a job killer and an export killer. Contrast this with the OAPI (the Francophone counterpart), which uses a uniform system where a single registration covers all members.For SADC, the strategic imperative is clear: the region must move toward a “single administrative machinery.” As noted in regional legal analysis, there is a dire need to address the:”shortcomings of the current regime… to avoid duplication and to draw on the wherewithal of regional partners.”Until regional integration assumes prominence, the high cost of defending innovation across borders will remain the single greatest hurdle for Southern African growth.

6. The Innovation Paradox: High Inputs, Low Outputs

Zambia’s legal strides are impressive, but the  Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024  reveals a stark “Innovation Paradox.” Zambia ranks  116th  globally, and while it holds the  13th position among 27 Sub-Saharan African economies , the data highlights a deep structural gap.Zambia ranks  103rd in Innovation Inputs  (infrastructure and institutions) but falls to  131st in Innovation Outputs  (actual technology and creative production). To put it in strategist’s terms: Zambia has built a world-class stadium (91st in Infrastructure, 92nd in Institutions), but it isn’t yet scoring goals (Creative Outputs).Zambia’s Top 3 Innovation Strengths:

Low-carbon energy use  (Ranked 8th globally)

Loans from microfinance institutions  (Ranked 21st globally)

Gross capital formation  (Ranked 22nd globally)The challenge for the next decade is translating these significant investments in infrastructure into tangible knowledge receipts and technological products.

7. Conclusion: The Road Ahead for the African Market

Zambia is proving that the rules of innovation can be rewritten through sensory marks, digital mandates, and village dialogues. However, the true test of this quiet revolution lies in regional competitiveness. If Southern Africa is to thrive, SADC leaders must move beyond the “sovereignty of the filing cabinet” and toward a unified IP framework. Can traditional laws keep pace with a world where a scent or an ancestral seed is as valuable as a microchip? Zambia is betting that they can—one digital filing at a time.