How to pay a patent renewal in South Africa

The simplest way to pay South African patent renewals is to do so online.

One option is to use our online worldwide patent renewal system. This system offers significant discounts on patent renewals. It also polices your patent by notifying you of newly published patents that may infringe your patent.

The alternative option is to:

• open an account with the South African patent office;
• deposit funds (in Rands) in to your account;
• download the renewal form P10 from the CIPC website;
• complete and return the renewal form to CIPC by fax;
• chase up renewal of the patent with CIPC; and
• diarise the next renewal date to ensure that your patent does not unintentionally lapse.

South Africa is one of the few countries that permit renewals to be paid more than 6 months in advance. Furthermore, the South African patent office has indicated that South African patent renewal fees will increase significantly in 2015. In addition to increasing the patent renewal fees, the patent office is expected to differentiate between “small” and “large” entities – levying a renewal premium on large entities. Accordingly, it is strongly suggested that patentees pay all their patents to term prior to the increase in renewal fees. To do this, simply: log on to the IdeaNav patent renewal system; input your South African patent number; when adding your patent to the cart, select “pay to term”; and pay for the renewal online using your credit card.

We manage patent renewals for South Africa’s largest companies. And, comparative analysis has shown that by shifting renewals to our online system, they have reduced their administrative burden significantly, and their renewal costs by between 40% and 70%!

Should you require assistance uploading cases on to our system, please contact us. We will ensure that this is done properly and without charge.