Patent Registrations In South Africa

August 29, 2011
Patents

In South Africa two types of patent registrations can be made:

1. Provisional
2. Complete Specification

Provisional Patent Registrations

A provisional patent application can be lodged without the assistance of an intellectual property attorney.

If you have developed an invention, but still need to modify it or improve it, you can get protection against copying, usage, distribution and commercial exploitation thereof by other parties by filing the provisional application.

It will award you a period of 12 months protection. For it to stay valid, you need to file the complete specification application within 12 months with the South African Patents Office.

The benefits of first filing a provisional application are:

1. It gives you the opportunity to further develop the invention ensuring that it will be protected during the development stage.
2. You can test the marketability of the invention during the 12 month period.
3. It also affords you the opportunity to get finance for which you will need to disclose information to other parties. You can disclose the information because the parties will not be able to decline assistance and then develop the invention.
4. It is cheaper than the complete specification application.
5. The provisional application is not as comprehensive as the complete specification application.
6. You get the earliest possible filing date which will be important should a dispute arise about the priority of patent applications.

Complete Specification Patent Registrations

As stated earlier, you must file the complete specification within 12 months from initial application. You can file for such directly if you are happy with the invention and are sure that it is marketable. For this step you must make use of an intellectual property attorney.

The invention must meet the requirements for patentability including that of absolute novelty, inventive step, and not being obvious to someone skilled in the trade as well as originality and usefulness in industry, agriculture or commerce.

Contact us at Smit & Van Wyk Attorneys for assistance regarding patent registrations in South Africa and abroad.

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