A patent is the exclusive right granted to an inventor for a specific period of time in exchange for a full disclosure of the invention to the public.
This monopoly enables the inventor to exclude any other persons from using the invention as claimed in the granted patent for a period of 20 years.
Patent registration may be granted for any invention that fills the following requirements: it must be new – this is known as international or “absolute” novelty, it must be useful in trade, industry, or agriculture, and it must be inventive – that is to say that it must not be so similar to a previously available article that it required little ingenuity to make the invention.
The first step in patent registration is to make sure that the invention really is new and does not infringe on a similar invention. This is called a novelty search, and should preferably be conducted by a patent attorney.
Provisional patent rights may be applied for by the completion of four patent application forms, P1, P2, P3 and P6, the first two of which must be in duplicate. A detailed description of the invention together with neat drawings in black ink must be attached to the application forms, and this is usually done by your patent attorney and his/her draughtsman.
The wording of the description is very important and must preferably be done by a patent attorney with expertise in your field of invention. The Patent Office states that they cannot accept any responsibility for the loss of rights arising if the invention becomes public and is copied and the provisional specification has not been properly drafted. The application must be lodged at CIPRO together with the small registration fee.
It is advisable to have this registration handled by a competent patent attorney, in which case fees will be in the region of R7000 to R12000 for an invention of low to medium complexity.
The reason for this big discrepancy in fees is due to the fact that each patent has to be adequately described in a technical specification, together with technical drawings, and it takes many, many hours to write and prepare each application. By definition, each invention must be unique in order to be patentable, which means that each patent specification must be drafted de novo.
The provisional patent is valid for 12 months, and an application for the final patent may be made at any time during these 12 months when the applicant is of the opinion that the invention is or may be a commercial success.
The provisional patent may be extended in South Africa only for up to 3 months at a small fee. This extension is not available for foreign filings. The final patent registration must be done by a Patent Attorney and will typically cost between R7000 and R12000, depending on the complexity of the invention.
The patent must be renewed annually after the third year and is valid for a total of 20 years. The patent is only valid in South Africa, but this may be extended to foreign countries by filing foreign applications in each country of interest.
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