Inventions have been around for many thousands of years – maybe millions. One of the first known inventions may well have been a piece of flint fashioned into a crude axe or arrowhead, or the thighbone of an animal fashioned into a club.
Inventions on Earth have been 100% attributed to humanity, for only humans have invented objects and ways of doing things that accomplish some principle in a new or different way, mainly so that a task can be accomplished faster, cheaper or more efficiently. Even though an invention may have been developed for a specific reason, the original idea of the invention may never have materialized as a working invention because at the time of the idea it was impractical.
For example, we know that Leonardo da Vinci had a number of ideas, such as the helicopter for example, that could never have been expressed in everyday physical form in his day, for it was technically impossible. Any barriers that prevent the implementation of an inventive idea may merely be a matter of technology, and could well be overcome as our knowledge of science progresses. Inventions, then, are processes, techniques or objects that show a component of novelty.
If you believe that you have an invention and it can be tested and proved for novelty, then you may be able to have the invention patented. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by the State to an inventor for a fixed period of time.
In South Africa this is usually twenty years. If granted the patent gives you the right to prevent or exclude all others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the claimed invention. In effect this means that you can exploit your inventions by licensing others to use them.
A patent is legal property, and may be disposed of in the same way as any other property. It may not only be licensed out for the use of others, but also it may be sold, assigned or transferred, mortgaged, given away, or even just abandoned.
The very first thing that you have to do is to make sure that the inventions do not already exist anywhere in the world. If something similar has ever existed anywhere or at any time, then your inventions cannot be patented.
An initial manual search can be carried out at CIPRO’s offices in Pretoria. If you do this yourself, it will cost you a mere R4. However, it is advisable to engage the services of a reputable patent attorney.
Although the application for patents for your inventions can be done by the inventor him/herself, it is best done through a Patent Attorney.
This is because some aspects of the application are complicated and have to be addressed in legal terms. In any event, the eventual complete patent application must be done through a registered patent attorney.
Once granted, the patents for your inventions must be advertised in the Patent Journal, this being the means of making it public.
If you have any queries regarding inventions or patents you should seek the advice of a qualified patent attorney.
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