A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by the State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of an device, method, process or composition of a substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable. A patent is an exclusionary right.
That is to say it gives the patent owner the right to exclude others from making use of or infringing the patent in any way. However, that does not necessarily give the owner of the patented invention the right to exploit that patent.
There are a huge number of critics and criticisms of patents, and this has resulted in the formation of a large number of groups who oppose patents in general, or specific types of patents, and who lobby for their abolishment. One criticism that is often heard is that a patent only gives a negative right to its owner, allowing him to prevent competitors from using or exploiting his inventions.
In Law, a patent is looked upon as any other type of property, and so it may be disposed of like any other property right; it may be sold, licensed, mortgaged, assigned or transferred, given away, or simply abandoned.
A patent may be sold by to another party, or it may be licensed for other people’s use with a license agreement. In such an agreement the holder of the patent holds on to all rights of ownership and the licensee has the right to use or exploit the invention in return for paying 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 conferring monopoly rights to him or her for the new invention.
When a patent is granted, it provides the patentee with the exclusive right to stop 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 South African patent 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 of the countries where protection is required.
The patent merely gives the right to exclude others from selling, using, making or offering for sale or exploiting in any way the invention, and it is up to the patentee to enforce these rights without refering to the Patents Office.
If you have any queries regarding patents, the exploiting of patents or inventions, you would be well advised to get in touch with a patent attorney. P
atent attorneys have had special training in patents and other intellectual property and will be happy to help you with your enquiry.
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