Protect your great ideas

THE BEST WAY

This is usually estimated at about 20 years. That means that no other company can duplicate or profit from your invention unless you have given written permission through a license agreement. It also gives you the legal right to challenge any similar products on the grounds of patent infringement.

In South Africa, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission is the administrator of IP law and covers patents, copyrights and trademarks.

However, entrepreneurs are also faced with the challenge of obtaining IP protection, which is often tedious and complicated. That is why you must first determine whether your invention meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent.

That information can be found on the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission website.

If you determine that your invention meets the minimum requirement, your next step must be to conduct thorough research to determine if your invention has not already been patented.

You can do this by doing a search on patentsearch.cipc.co.za

However, South Africa operates and trades in an international market of which IP rights apply across borders. Therefore, you must conduct a secondary search on www.wipo.int which is a portal that documents international patents from other participating countries.

Even after a successful preliminary search, it still doesn’t guarantee a successful application and not to mention the possibility of a challenge from an existing patent holder, which again embroils an entrepreneur in legal battles, additional costs and a prolonged application.

In the end, the benefits of a patent far outweigh the onerous process needed to obtain IP protection.

Munya Duvera is the director of Duvera Elgroup