Like many other countries, if you have an invention that you wish to register in South Africa, you must visit the patent office. The South Africa Patent Office is part of CIPRO (the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office). CIPRO is a division of the South African Department of Trade and Industry, and the patent office is in Meintjies Street, Pretoria.
At CIPRO you can register Companies and Close Corporations as well as Copyright, Designs, Patents and Trade Marks. If you are an inventor and you have an invention that you wish to patent it is necessary to file an application for a provisional patent at the South African Patent Office.
A patent is an exclusive right granted to an inventor for an invention, which is a product or process that provides a new way of doing something, or that offers a new technical solution to a problem.
The patent provides protection for the owner, and gives him or her the right to prevent others from making, using, exercising, disposing of the invention, offering to dispose, or from profiting in any way from the invention. In Law the patent is regarded as property and is a legal document that gives protection for a limited period, normally for 20 years.
All applications for new patents in South Africa must be made on the appropriate forms to the Patent Office. These are:
- P1 – Application for Patent and Acknowledgement of Receipt. (duplicate)
- P2 – Register of Patents (duplicate)
- P3 – Power of Attorney (If using an attorney or agent)
- P4 – Provisional specification
All documents must be typed or printed, and it is most important that the description of the specification is thorough and unambiguous, and where applicable, neat drawings on A4 pages in black ink must be attached. It is a good idea to have a South African Patent Attorney or Agent make the application on your behalf.
Before applying for a new patent in South Africa it is imperative that you make sure that the invention is new – that nothing similar has been patented before, anywhere. This can be done in the Paper Based Disclosure Centre in the Patent Office.
The search costs R4, but a patent attorney or his agent may be appointed to carry out this search on your behalf. This will cost you a little extra, but Patent Attorneys have the experience of carrying out these searches and know what to look for and where to look. Once Novelty has been shown, the provisional application can go ahead. Once granted the provisional patent is valid for 12 months, giving the inventor time to evaluate his invention.
Application for a full patent can be made at the South Africa Patent Office at any time after the granting of the provisional patent.
Alternatively the patent may be filed with the PCT (Patent Co-operation Treaty) international filing system. Inventors may consult an attorney at the South Africa Patent Office for 30 minutes free of charge with any query on Intellectual Property.
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