Patents and Companies Registration Agency

What Patents and Companies Registration Agency does

Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) is a Zambian government statutory agency founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lusaka that serves as the official national registry for business entities, intellectual property, and securities. The agency's statutory mandate covers three core service areas: registration of business entities (companies, enterprises, and other organizations operating in Zambia), registration of intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, and industrial designs), and registration of security interests in movable property. Its customer base is horizontal — every business required to register under Zambian law, every IP holder seeking protection, and any party registering a security interest in movable property. PACRA maintains legal authority derived from multiple acts including the Patents Act, Trade Marks Act, and Registered Designs Act, and publishes authoritative monthly publications including the Intellectual Property Journal and Registrar IP Rulings.

The agency operates a hybrid digital and physical service delivery model. Digital channels include the PACRA Portal (portal.pacra.org.zm) for online transactions, a dedicated business search tool (search.pacra.org.zm), a movable property registry portal (mprs.pacra.org.zm), and integration with the Zambian Government Services Portal (eservices.gov.zm) and the WIPO TMView international trademark search network. Physical service delivery is provided through a network of 13 offices across all 10 Zambian provinces, including one-stop-shop locations in Lusaka and Kitwe. Core technology consists of government registry systems; the agency applies international classification frameworks including UNSD's ISIC for business activity coding and WIPO's Nice Classification, Locarno Classification, and International Patent Classification (IPC) for IP categorization, ensuring alignment with global standards.

As a government agency, PACRA's revenue model is non-commercial: fees are regulated by the Zambian government and are not market-priced, with revenue information not publicly disclosed. The agency is governed by a six-year Strategic Plan (2021-2026) and accompanying Implementation Plan focused on customer-focused service delivery, entrepreneurship promotion, and innovation enablement. PACRA holds core partnerships with the United Nations Statistics Division (ISIC classification framework) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (Nice, Locarno, and IPC classification systems), and operates under direct government mandate with no private or institutional ownership structure.

Name

Patents and Companies Registration Agency

Legal name

Patents and Companies Registration Agency

Website

https://pacra.org.zm

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Short description

PACRA is Zambia's government statutory registry, founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lusaka, administering business entity registration, intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, designs), and movable property security interest registration for all businesses operating in Zambia through 13 provincial offices and online portals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Government Business Registry

NAICS

Regulation, Licensing, and Inspection of Miscellaneous Commercial Sectors (926150), Public Administration (92), Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support (921)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAIAOAA

Business Registration & Corporate Affairs (Registries)

Business & Public Services/Public Sector & Government Administration/Regulatory Agencies & Licensing (Cross-sector)

SECONDARYBPAIAAAG

National Archives, Records & Information Governance

Business & Public Services/Public Sector & Government Administration/Central/Federal Government Administration

Keywords

• Business registration services
• Intellectual property registry
• Trademark registration services
• Movable property registry
• Government statutory registry

Headquarters

HQ city

Lusaka

HQ country

Zambia

HQ region

Africa

Offices13 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Others

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

PACRA administers statutory registration of business entities, intellectual property (patents, trademarks, and industrial designs), and security interests in movable property in Zambia. The agency maintains official registry records, supports online business search, publishes intellectual property journals and rulings, and operates 13 provincial offices to deliver registration services nationwide.

Product overview

The Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) is Zambia's official government registry for business entities, intellectual property, and securities. PACRA offers a unified platform consisting of the PACRA Portal for online transactions, classification services (ISIC, Nice, Locarno, and IPC) for standardizing economic activity and IP categorization, and various publications including the Intellectual Property Journal, IP Rulings, and Annual Reports. Services include business registration, intellectual property registration (patents, trademarks, industrial designs), business search capabilities, and movable property security interest registration. The agency operates under a Strategic Plan 2021-2026 focused on customer-focused service delivery and entrepreneurship promotion.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Business Registration
• Intellectual Property Registration
• Business Search
• Movable Property Security Interest Registration

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNSD provides the International Standard Industrial Classifications (ISIC) framework that PACRA uses to classify all registered businesses according to economic activities. ISIC enables international comparison of statistical data on economic activities.
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWIPO provides multiple classification systems used by PACRA: Nice Classification for trademark registration, Locarno Classification for industrial designs, and International Patent Classification (IPC) for patent classification. These enable international IP registration standards.
• Zambia GovernmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPACRA operates as a government agency under the Zambian Government, integrated with the Government Services Portal (eservices.gov.zm) for seamless public access to government services.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) – South Africa: CIPC is South Africa's combined company and IP registry; comparable to PACRA in scope (companies, IP, securities-style filings) and operates digital-first services across South Africa's provinces — a benchmark for African regional modernization.
• Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) – Tanzania: BRELA is Tanzania's integrated business registration, licensing, and IP agency under the Ministry of Trade, mirroring PACRA's combined mandate and serving as the most structurally comparable East African peer.
• Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) – Zimbabwe: CIPA is Zimbabwe's combined business registration and IP registry agency, structurally the closest peer to PACRA — a single statutory body administering company registration, trademarks, patents, and industrial designs for the domestic market.
• Kenya Business Registration Service (BRS): Kenya's BRS is the government agency responsible for company registration, business names, and collateral registries — operating an analogous statutory monopoly and digital portal framework as PACRA.

Broad incumbents

• Companies House – United Kingdom: UK's Companies House is the global benchmark for digitized national business registries; useful as a maturity reference for PACRA's potential online service evolution, though it does not handle IP registration.
• EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office): EUIPO manages EU-wide trademarks and designs; comparable to PACRA's Nice/Locarno classification use case but at regional rather than national scope, with significantly more advanced digital service delivery.
• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): USPTO is the federal IP registry for patents and trademarks in the U.S.; a broader incumbent peer for the IP registration portion of PACRA's mandate, particularly relevant for cross-border filers using WIPO's PCT/Madrid systems.
• IP Australia: IP Australia administers patents, trademarks, and designs for Australia and is globally recognized for digital IP services — a reference point for the IP-side modernization PACRA could pursue via its Nice/Locarno/IPC framework.

Regional players

• Delaware Division of Corporations: Delaware's Division of Corporations is the leading U.S. corporate registry for company formations; comparable to PACRA as a statutory business registration monopoly serving a non-domestic client base.

Others

• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): WIPO is the UN agency that supplies the Nice, Locarno, and IPC classification systems PACRA directly uses, and operates the Madrid and PCT international filing systems — making WIPO both an upstream enabler and an indirect competitor for cross-border IP filings originating from Zambia.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/patents-and-companies-registration-agency-pacra-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Patents and Companies Registration Agency