The Mission

The Patents and  Companies  Registration  Office (PACRO) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI). It is  currently undergoing both commercialization and computerization to meet trends in the national economy and Government policy on public service reform. In keeping with its role in the economy, its mission  is:

'provide efficient and effective registration and protection systems for commercial and intellectual property rights in order to promote innovation and orderly trade for the benefit of the nation.

Functions

The mission reflects the organization’s three basic functions. The first being to run a legal system for registration and protection of commercial property (i.e. companies and firms and attendant particulars like bank mortgages) and industrial property i.e. trade marks, designs and patents for inventions.

Since the PACRO is empowered to sell  these services, collection of revenue for the Central Treasury is the organization’s second function. The third function rests in the office’s position as the legal depository of the information tendered for registration. This is rich commercial and technological information which then accesses to investors and other entrepreneurs.

Statutory authority for executing these three functions come from five laws which it administers. These are the Companies Act, the Registration of  Business Names Act, Patents Act Trade Marks Act and the Registered Designs Act (Caps 388 to 402, respectively, of the 1995 Edition of the laws of Zambia).