About us

Aim

IdeaNav helps inventors protect their ideas and convert them into working prototypes.

Who we are

IdeaNav was formed in 2007 and includes:

Patent Attorneys:
Paulo Lopes (MSc(Mech)Eng, LLB, HDip(Tax)),
Anthony van Zantwijk (BSc(Civ)Eng, LLB, LLM(Tax)), and
McLean Sibanda (MSc(Met)Eng, LLB, LLM(Comm))

Trademark Attorney:

Taya Lombard (LLB)

Candidate Attorneys:
Tian Klynsmith (BSc(Met)Eng),
Melissa Rabie (BSc(Mechatronics)Eng)

Industrial Designer:
Monica Monsanto

and our lovely assistant Lesley Mackell.

The company was spun out of Sibanda & Zantwijk Patent Attorneys (a firm specialising in intellectual property commercialisation).

We are also the South African service provider of the low-cost online international intellectual property filing company Iptica.

Why us?

• All our patent attorneys used to work at the biggest patent firms – Adams and Adams, Spoor and Fisher.
• We have successfully prototyped many inventions, which are now in the market.
• We are the most prolific filers of patents in South Africa.
• We offer a complete range of intellectual property commercialisation services to clients including Anglo American, De Beers, Sasol, SARS, the SA Reserve Bank.

We will take your idea further than any other South African patent firm.

Our philosophy

IdeaNav makes IP accessible and affordable by developing IP tools and making them freely available.

Our clients choose to use us – for each service offered, we ensure that a corresponding free comprehensive “do it yourself tool” is available.

Pricing

We offer the most affordable patent and design services, guaranteed without compromising quality.

We have discarded the industry-standard hourly-rate billing model and substituted it with a fixed, transparent pricing policy that inventors can budget on.

Independence and objectivity

To protect our independence and objectivity, IdeaNav refuses to accept or offer referral payments – all referrals are motivated by value to the inventor instead of relationships, reciprocity and “rebates”.