South African Patent System - Patent Search

Patent Search

The responsibility for ensuring that the application is valid resides with the applicant. South Africa is a non-examining country. This means that CIPC does not investigate the novelty or inventive merit of the invention - only the form or documentation is verified and not the substance of the product or process. For peace of mind, the inventor can make use of the services of a qualified patent attorney to investigate the existence of previous patent specifications that relate to the relevant invention. This procedure, although expensive, may negate possible future litigation procedures and unnecessary financial expenses. It is crucial that an international patent search should be conducted, especially if an inventor wants to commercialise a product or process in foreign countries. The same applies for a patentee, who wants to commercialise an invention and who does not want to infringe someone else’s patent. A search should then be conducted at the South African Patent Office. No online search facilities exist for South African Patents and all searches are carried out by hand at the Patent Office through a card based system, however, electronic patent searches may be performed on a contract basis on proprietary systems such as the Electronic Patent Journal (EPJ).