SA patents get global clout
June 22, 2009
Johannesburg - South African patents will no longer be confined to South African borders, the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) said on Monday.
"All South African patents will soon be available on the website of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) under 'National Collections'," Cipro said in a statement.
It added that the South African patent collection for the period 1988 to 2008 was being uploaded on a test environment and was expected to be operational in September this year.
"This means South African patents will no longer be confined to South African borders," said Keith Sendwe, chief executive officer of Cipro.
"We are just as proud of any registered patents as our entrepreneurs and are therefore delighted that scanned images of these patents will soon be available world-wide."
Cipro was convinced that anybody who logged onto the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) database would be impressed by the creative and viable patents that had been registered with it over the years, he added.
Sendwe said that Wipo, a specialised United Nations agency, was dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system.
As part of a co-operation agreement with Wipo, Cipro had undertaken to supply scanned images of South African patents.
In return Wipo would perform an Optical Character Recognition (OCR), index the bibliographic information and make the South African patent collection available on its electronic patent search facility "PatentScope". "As Cipro is mandated to register and maintain the respective documentation of companies and intellectual property under the applicable legislation, Cipro is the custodian of the South African patent documentation," Sendwe noted.
He said that in order to improve accessibility to its services, Cipro had embarked on a project to create a South African Electronic Patent Database.
The project consisted of three phases defined by time periods.
Phase one included the digitising of all granted patents in force from 1988 to 2008, he said.
During phase two, the patents for the period 1961 to 1987 would be digitised, after which all the remaining patents before 1961 would be scanned as part of phase three.
"We are currently in the process of scanning all South African granted patents according to Wipo standards and as indicated in the phases.
"These scanned images will be published on the Cipro and Wipo websites in terms of the agreement between Cipro, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation," Sendwe said.
"For entrepreneurs this means South African patents will be available world-wide with the click of a button," he added.
Sendwe said the Wipo system did not only reward creativity, but also stimulated innovation and contributed to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.
"Viewing these patents may just trigger a business idea.
"And your patent may be next to be posted on these websites," he said. - Sapa
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