TRADE MARKS ACT PART VI ASSIGNMENT AND TRANSMISSION 27 Powers of, and restriction on, assignment and transmission (1) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, a registered trade mark shall be, and shall be deemed always to have been, assignable and transmissible, either in connection with or without the goodwill of the business concerned in the goods or services in respect of which the trade mark is registered. (2) A registered trade mark shall be, and shall be deemed always to have been, assignable and transmissible in respect either of all the goods or services in respect of which it is registered or was registered, as the case may be, or of some, but not all, of those goods or services. (3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall have effect in the case of an unregistered trade mark used in relation to any goods or services as they have effect in the case of a registered trade mark registered in respect of any goods or services, if— (a) at the time of the assignment or transmission of the unregistered trade mark, it is or was used in the same business as a registered trade mark; and (b) it is or was assigned or transmitted at the same time to the same person as that registered trade mark and in respect of goods or services, all of which are goods or services in relation to which the unregistered trade mark is or was used in that business and in respect of which that registered trade mark is or was assigned or transmitted. (4) Notwithstanding anything in subsections (1) to (3), a trade mark shall not be, or be deemed to have been, assignable or transmissible in a case in which, as a result of an assignment or transmission, there would in the circumstances subsist, or have subsisted, whether under the common law or by registration, exclusive rights in more than one of the persons concerned to the use, in relation to the same goods or services or description of goods or services, of trade marks nearly resembling each other or of identical trade marks if, having regard to the similarity of the goods or services and of the trade marks, the use of the trade marks in exercise of those rights would be, or have been, likely to deceive or cause confusion: Provided that where a trade mark is, or has been, assigned or transmitted in such a case as aforesaid, the assignment or transmission shall not be deemed to be, or to have been, invalid under this subsection if the exclusive rights subsisting as a result thereof in the persons concerned respectively are, or were, having regard to limitations imposed thereon, such as not to be exercisable by two or more of those persons in relation to— (a) goods to be sold or otherwise traded in within Zimbabwe, otherwise than for export therefrom; or (b) goods to be exported to the same market outside Zimbabwe; or (c) services to be performed within Zimbabwe. (5) Where the proprietor of a registered trade mark who proposes to assign that trade mark in respect of any goods or services in respect of which it is ss 24–27 registered submits to the Registrar in the prescribed manner a statement of case setting out the circumstances— (a) the Registrar may issue to him a certificate stating whether, having regard to the similarity of the goods or services and of the trade marks referred to in the case, the proposed assignment of the first-mentioned 95 [Chapter 26:04]