Patents for protection

If you have invented something that is brand new, has never been seen before, and is not an obvious development on that which has gone before, then it is most important that you apply for a patent to protect that invention. There are a certain number of things, though, that you protect by way of a patent in South Africa, and these are:

• A discovery
• A scientific theory
• A mathematical method
• A literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation
• A scheme, rule or method for performing mental acts, playing a game or doing business
• A programme for a computer
• The presentation of information
• Medical, surgical, or diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body
• Frivolous inventions and immoral inventions

It is useful to regard a patent in terms of a solution to a problem.

The invention must be new; in other words it must not have been made known to the public anywhere in the world before the date of filing your patent application. You cannot obtain a patent to protect an invention by copying an idea from a foreign country, because firstly the idea is not new, and secondly because you are not the inventor. Even if the Patent Office issued a patent to protect the invention on such an application, the patent would be invalid.

In addition, the invention must not be obvious to a skilled technician or person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention.

Having come to the conclusion that your invention appears to be patentable, the next step is to make sure that the invention really is new, because if a similar invention has already been patented elsewhere, then a patent to protect the invention will not be valid. It is at this stage that you must be very careful not to make any public disclosure about the invention, for any disclosure before you apply for a patent to protect it will result in it not being patentable. Public disclosure includes the propagation of information about the invention through:

• Newspaper articles
• Newsletters and bulletins
• Journals, textbooks or theses
• Letters to editors
• Personal presentations
• Informal discussions with friends or others
• Talks at meetings
• E-mails or Internet articles

Patents may be granted to protect the following:

Having established that you do have a case in which to apply for a patent to protect your invention, it is best to contact a patent practice in order to start the ball rolling with your application. Patent attorneys have had a lot of experience in patent applications – they are very useful to have around.