There are certain criteria that must be met for an invention to be eligible for patent protection. These criteria are extremely strict and must be adhered to. In order for any invention to be eligible for patent protection it must firstly be novel, it must be useful and it must not be so obvious that anyone with good technical skill would expect it.
To be novel means that it must be completely new. You cannot have something patented if it already exists somewhere or if it was made known to the public or secretly applied before the patent was applied for. The item cannot be eligible for patent protection if it was made known to the public or if it was secretly applied before the patent was applied for.
The article must benefit society in some way and must be of use to commerce, industry or agriculture. It is essential that there is no revelation of the invention to the public before filing an application for a patent.
Any disclosure to the public would render the invention no longer patentable. This includes disclosure by word of mouth or in print. It is most important to guard against mentioning the invention casually at a meeting, in unprotected e-mails on posters or in an abstract.
A patent is best described as a set of exclusive rights granted by the State to a patentee (the inventor or his/her assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of the device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable. In Law, a patent is looked upon as any other type of property, and so it may be disposed of by the owner in any way that he sees fit.
A patent may be sold by assignment to another party, or it may be licensed for other people’s use by means of a license agreement. In such an agreement the holder of the patent retains all rights of ownership and the licensee has the right to use the invention for a fee.
Eligible patent protection is governed by the Patents Act of 1978, which governs Patent Law in South Africa. Through this Act, Letters Patent may be issued to an applicant, and these confer monopoly rights to him or her for the new invention.
If eligible for patent protection a patent should be granted. The patent provides the patentee with the exclusive right to prevent all others from exploiting the invention for the life of the patent, which in South Africa is usually 20 years from the date of the first patent application being filed.
All patent rights are territorial, so a patent conferred in South Africa is only valid in South Africa. If the inventor wishes to be protected outside South Africa he or she must apply for patent rights in each country where protection is required.
The patent merely gives the right to exclude others from selling, using, making or offering for sale the invention, and it is up to the patentee to enforce these rights without reference to the Patents Office.
If you wish to know whether your invention is eligible for patent protection you would be wise to contact a patent attorney, who will give you all the relevant information and be happy to help you.
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