In South Africa patents are granted by the South Africa Patents Office, which is a division of the South African Department of Trade and Industry.
The Patents Office goes by the name of the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office, otherwise known as CIPRO, and can be found in Meintjies Street, Pretoria. Patents are sets of exclusive rights that are granted by a State (South Africa) to an inventor for a fixed period of time (in South Africa this is 20 years from the date of the first provisional application) in exchange for the regulated public revelation of certain details of the invention. Patents are only granted if the invention is shown to be innovative, ingenious and practical in commerce, industry or agriculture.
If you have invented something that you consider to be patentable, you might first consider getting the advice of a South Africa Patents Lawyer. You can consult an attorney at the South Africa Patents Office for thirty minutes free of charge if you have a query regarding Intellectual Property of any kind. Their contact number is 012 394 5087.
The lawyer will probably tell you that the first thing you have to do is to make sure that your invention really is new. How on Earth do you do this? You can carry out the search yourself for as little as R4 at the Paper Based Disclosure Centre at CIPRO.
The search will be painstaking, as you have to go through reams and reams of filed papers. It is advisable to engage the services of a South Africa Patents Attorney or Agent to carry out the search on your behalf – they are very experienced in carrying out searches and this will save you lots of time.
Presuming that the invention is found to indeed be original, then you can go ahead and make an application for a provisional patent. You will need to fill in the following forms, which are available at the South Africa Patents Office:
- 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. It is most important that the description of the invention in the specification is thorough and unambiguous, and where applicable, drawings in black ink should be attached, on A4 pages.
This application can be made by you, but is probably better made by a South Africa Patents Attorney who has a professional knowledge of the process.
If granted, the provisional patent will remain valid for a period of twelve months, giving you the opportunity of assessing the viability of the invention. You can apply for a full patent at the South African Patents Office at any time after receiving the provisional patent. A South Africa Patents Attorney must make out this application.
An application can also be made to the PCT system giving you protection in several countries other than South Africa. For any queries regarding patents you should contact an Intellectual Property Lawyer.
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