Patent Office Sees Surge in New Filings But Trademark Filings Remain Slow

After a decade of declining patent filings the South African Patent Office became the fastest growing intellectual property outfit in the world over the past two years, according to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission. File Image: IOL

By Ruan Jooste

After a decade of declining patent filings the South African Patent Office became the fastest growing intellectual property (IP) outfit in the world over the past two years, according to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

The number of local filings increased by 73%, and this growth was largely due to China. The number of patent filings per year increased from 8 099 to just under 14 000.

In 2022, China also overtook the US as the largest filer of South African patents, and became the dominant filer of Nigerian patents as well, according to IdeaNav, a research firm specialising in IP commercialisation.

”Over the past two years, China increased its focus on Africa and now accounts for about 40% of South African patents filed,” it says.

Indian firms also increased their focus on local patents.

According to the CIPC a patent filing “is to prevent other people from making, using, exercising, disposing of or importing your invention without your permission”.

They define a patent as an exclusive right granted for an invention.

Such an invention must be a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem.

Patent protection means someone else cannot commercially make, use, distribute or sell your invention without your permission for a limited period of 20 years, according to the CIPC.

Anthony van Zantwijk, partner at Sibanda & Zantwijk Patent Attorneys, said the staggering growth was due to the introduction of a new global registration system – the GlobalIPCo, which automates patent filing and prosecution in African countries, and the fact that the local patent office has reduced its time in granting such applications.

“The South African Patent Office reduced the time for a local patent to be registered from about 12 months to about four months,” Van Zantwijk said.

“The number of South African patents filed using the new online filing systems increased from just under 2% in 2020 to about 35% in 2022; with patent costs reduced by about 80% due to automation.

“The uptick in applications is also due to the combination of the South African and Nigerian patent process into what is called a SANi Patent system, which Van Zantwijk said is a collaborative patent effort that combines South Africa and Nigeria.

“Separate patents are filed in South Africa and Nigeria and a sole certificate is received for each of these countries,” he said.

Despite the same low-cost online filing system being available for South African trademarks, industry players state they have not experienced a similar increase in local trademark filings.

This is largely due to the time from filing to registration of a South African trademark remaining unchanged, at around two years, according to Van Zantwijk.

According to the copyright alliance, a global advocacy group for international creatives, the difference between a patent and a trademark is that a patent protects inventions like new and useful processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter as well as improvements to them.

A trademark is rather a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.

“If the time from filing to registration of a South African trademark could be shortened, we expect to see a similar significant increase in trademark filings by foreign applicants,” Van Zantwijk said.

Source: IOL-Ruan Jooste

Editor: IPR Daily-Ann