Local Patent Application Requirements
September 1, 2011
Inventions, Patent News, Patents
A local patent refers to the exclusive rights granted by a government or its representative patent office to an inventor for a specific period in exchange for full disclosure of information about the invention to the public.
A local patent is just that – local. It protects the invention against unauthorized usage and commercial gain by other parties.
The holder of a local patent has the right to set up agreements with other parties for usage, marketing, selling, production, and distribution by means of a licensing agreement.
The patent holder will then receive royalties for the above from the other parties. The patent rights holder can also assign the local patent to another party. This entails transferring all rights to another party.
A local patent doesn’t give the patentee the right to use or make and sell the invention, but rather excludes others from doing so regarding the local patent. It can be described as a monopoly right. The lifetime of a local patent is 20 years calculated from the first patent filing date.
If you want the patent to be registered and valid in other countries, thus be a foreign patent, you must file for such through the help of a patent attorney.
The South African Patent Office will not enforce the rights. It is the responsibility of the patentee to enforce the rights and take legal action against other parties who infringe upon his or her local or international patent rights.
To qualify as a local patent, the invention must be novel, thus never disclosed, used or sold anywhere in the world before the first patent filing date. The invention must furthermore be non-obvious to a person skilled in the trade and must involve an inventive step.
Finally it must be useful in agriculture, commerce or industry. Any public disclosure about the invention before the provisional filing date for a local patent will disqualify the invention.
Contact us at Smit & Van Wyk Intellectual Property Attorneys to help you file a local patent application.
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Novel Inventions
August 26, 2011
Inventions, Patents
Novel inventions exclude discoveries of natural occurrences, scientific methods, mathematical formulas, rules for playing games, methods of mental acts, treatments for humans or animals such as therapies and surgeries, and computer programs.
Novel inventions are the processes, composition, and devices which do not form part of prior art and which are thus not obvious to someone skilled in the particular field.
For inventions to fall within the category of novel, the inventions may not have been disclosed in any public matter whether as poster, announcements, adverts, journal articles or any form of public disclosure prior to the initial patent filing date.
As can be seen from the above, not all inventions can be patented. Novel inventions furthermore must include an inventive step and must be useful to agriculture or industry.
There are inventions in the fields of bio-engineering and technology which can qualify for patentability even when something has only been improved significantly.
The patent attorneys of Smit & Van Wyk are not only qualified in the area of patent & trademark laws, but also as scientists or engineers in a wide range of fields. This is important because the South African Patent Office is a non-examining office.
This means that the assessment for a novel invention must be carried out by the patent attorney. As such patent attorneys conduct thorough patent searches and test each invention to determine whether it can be a truly novel invention.
In addition patent attorneys also assist in the filing of the patent applications regarding novel inventions, drawings, claims, and specifications.
If you believe you have developed a novel invention and have not disclosed any information about such to any party not directly involved in the development of the invention, we recommend that you file a provisional patent application immediately to ensure the earliest possible filing date.
Contact us at Smit & Van Wyk to help you get patent rights for your novel inventions.
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