Time for South African patent acceptance, grant and courier of certificate

During the course of 2021, we have been working with the South African Patent Office to reduce the time taken for:

• acceptance of South African patents (with request for accelerated acceptance);
• grant of South African patents; and
• issuance of the registration certificate for South African patents.

S&Z files more than 250 patents per month and their average timelines have been:

June 2021

• Acceptance: 6 days from filing;
• Grant: 38 days from filing; and
• Courier of patent certificate: 87 days from filing.

July 2021

• Acceptance: 15 days from filing;
• Grant: 34 days from filing; and
• Courier of patent certificate: 87 days from filing.

Notes:

• Despite arranging publication upon receipt of the Notice of Acceptance: (i) the South African Patent Journal is published on the last Wednesday of each month; and (ii) submission of patents into the Journal closes on the Monday of the same week. For this reason, grant may occur up to 5 weeks from the date of acceptance.
• The South African Patent Office takes 2-4 weeks from the date of publication to issue the registration certificate.

Neither the July COVID third wave, nor the country-wide riots caused the South African Patent Office to skip a beat!

S&Z’s exclusive use of the GlobalIPCo patent management system makes S&Z the most efficient law firm in South Africa.