In South Africa, a patent grants exclusive rights over an invention for 20 years from the filing date, provided you keep up with the annual renewal fees. This means no one else can legally make, use, sell, or import your invention during that period without your consent.
Used strategically, patent protection can anchor your competitive advantage, fend off copycats, and unlock powerful avenues for licensing and revenue generation. But to wield this tool effectively, you need to understand what counts as patentable, the types of patents available, and how to get a patent.
Types of Patents: Utility, Design, and Plant
In South Africa, there are three main types of patent-related rights:
- Utility Patents (also known as invention patents): These protect new inventions or significant improvements to existing technologies – everything from mechanical devices and electronics to chemical processes.
- Registered Designs: While not strictly called “design patents” locally, aesthetic and functional designs are protectable through design registrations. It’s how you protect what something looks like, rather than how it works.
- Plant Breeders’ Rights: A separate but related entitlement that protects new, reproducible plant varieties developed by a plant breeder.
If your creation is both new in function and original in appearance, more than one form of protection may apply.
What Qualifies as Patentable?
South African patent law requires your invention to pass three critical tests. It must:
- Be novel (completely new to the world)
- Involve an inventive step (not obvious to someone skilled in the relevant field)
- Be capable of industrial application (something that can be made or used in a business, farming, or manufacturing context)
Ideas, mathematical methods, discoveries, business rules, and artistic designs with no technical function all fall outside the scope of patentable subject matter.
At Bredenkamp Intellectual Property Attorneys, we often start with a patentability search to give clients a realistic picture of their invention’s chances, especially when they’re about to invest their time, capital, or reputation into commercialising it.
How Long Does a Patent Last?
A South African patent lasts for 20 years from the date of filing, on the condition that annual renewal fees are paid from the third year onward. If not maintained, the patent lapses, and your rights are lost.
After 20 years, even if maintained perfectly, the patent expires, and the invention becomes public domain.
Costs Involved in Patenting an Invention
On average, provisional patent applications cost R21,500, excluding VAT. This involves drafting the application, including patent drawings, settling the specification with the client and filing the application.
- Provisional patent application: R8,000 excluding VAT to R25,000 excluding VAT
We report the application number once we receive it from the patent office and contact our clients well in advance of the end of the application term to determine the way forward.
Why Work with Bredenkamp Intellectual Property Attorneys?
Patents are one of our core services at Bredenkamp IP Attorneys. Our patent attorneys advise early-stage inventors, advanced R&D teams, and corporates alike on how best to protect, refine, and leverage their inventions. We guide clients through each phase of the patent process (searches, provisional applications, complete applications, enforcement, and licensing), always with commercial goals in mind.
From offices in Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, we handle local and international patent applications, including coordination across regional African offices such as ARIPO and OAPI.
Let’s make sure what you’ve built is properly protected. Reach out to Bredenkamp Intellectual Property Attorneys to start the patent conversation today.
