Protectability of trade and service marks under the law in Tanzania

This work is an attempt to examine the law governing registration and protection of trade and service marks in Tanzania whether it sufficiently confers protection to registered trademarks. Protection of trade and service marks serves two purposes, on one side the protects the interests of proprietors of trade and service marks from actual infringers and potential infringers and on the other side protects the interests of consumers from confusion /deception which is likely to be created by infringers. During examination of efficiency of this law two kinds of research were conducted; field research and library research. The work is divided in to five chapters. The first chapter deals with the origins of trade marks, the era before and after the Paris Convention for protection of Industrial Property and the Introduction of Trade marks in colonial Tanganyika. The second chapter examines the role of trade and service marks and the criteria of protectability of marks. Third chapter deals with infringement of marks, the available protection and redress under the law. Under this chapter it was found that the current law is full of weaknesses in protection of trade marks. Fourth chapter examines other non statutory problems facing protection of trade and service marks in Tanzania such as lack of sufficient knowledge and lack of border measures to control importation of infringed goods, Last chapter recommends what is to be done in order to have effective protection of marks in Tanzania. It is recommended that effective protection of marks call for coordination among government bodies.