Register intellectual property

Protect all your intellectual property (trademarks, patents, designs, copyright and know-how) affordably:

Register trademarks

To protect your brand (e.g. IBM):

• Discuss your brand with us over the phone / in a meeting at our Johannesburg offices. We can advise whether your mark is too descriptive (e.g. Johannesburg Clothing Store) or laudatory (e.g. Best Shoes) to be trademark registered.
• Conduct a brand search through various databases (including the CIPC trademarks database) to check: whether use of your brand will step on another person’s toes; and whether your brand is sufficiently distinctive. Cost: R2,500 plus vat.
• Identify appropriate classes in which to file your trademark. For example: clothes, shoes and hats should be filed in class 25; sunglasses fall in class 9; jewellery and watches are covered by class 14; and sports equipment is in class 28.
• Register a South African trademark in each relevant class. Cost: R4,090 plus vat for the first trademark.
• In 6 months time, file corresponding trademarks in foreign countries. Trademarks are territorial. So, to get trademark protection in Australia, you will need to file an Australian trademark.

We can conduct a search in a week and file trademarks within a couple of days.

Register patents

To protect your invention (i.e. a new and inventive feature on your product):

• Identify the most important potentially new feature of your invention by discussing your invention with us over the phone. An email with a sketch and bullet points detailing the features is useful. We are patent attorneys, and are obliged by law to keep your information confidential.
• Conduct an international online patent search to confirm that this principal feature is new. About 80% of our searches deal knock-out blows to the invention. Look on the bright side: at least these clients do not waste money drafting and filing invalid patents.
• File a South African provisional patent. Consider filing your own provisional patent through GlobalIPCo for $199 or through Iptica for $99. See our easy provisional patent drafting and filing guide.
• In 12 / 30 months time, file corresponding complete patents in South Africa and foreign countries. Patents are territorial. so, to get patent protection in the US, you will need to file a US patent.

Register designs

To protect the shape of your product:

• Upload drawings / photos of your product to GlobalIPCo and file a design for only $299.
• In 6 months time, file corresponding designs in foreign countries. Designs are territorial. So, to get design protection in Europe, you will need to file a European design. European designs are very affordable. GlobalIPCo files European designs for only Euro 556.

Copyright

Here is the best news: copyright is the one category of intellectual property that is free. No registration is required. And, you are basically protected worldwide for at least 50 years against others making a “copy” of your work of art (e.g. drawings, musical recordings, poems, videos and software source code). Just add the copyright symbol with your name and date to let people know you are the owner.

Know-how

Protect your secret information (e.g. KFC’s secret 11 herbs and spices) by asking people to whom you disclose the information to sign confidentiality undertakings. Use our free template confidentiality undertakings. They are really good, even if we say so ourselves. Or, create your own NDA using SuperNDA.