Which South African patent law firms filed the most provisional patents in 2020?
Surprisingly, 2020 didn’t see a significant drop in the number of South African provisional patents filed. Although, the South African Patent Office was closed for a few months during lockdown, the decline in provisional patents simply continued its gradual negative trend.
Adams & Adams remains the top filer of South African provisional patents, S&Z retained its second place for a second year running, while Spoor & Fisher was pushed down another notch, this year by Hahn & Hahn.
Here is the top filing list for 2020:
| Patent firm | Provisional patents filed |
|---|---|
| Adams & Adams | 158 |
| S&Z | 104 |
| Hahn & Hahn | 81 |
| Spoor & Fisher | 66 |
| Kisch Africa | 47 |
| McCallum Rademeyer & Freimond | 47 |
| Smit & van Wyk | 47 |
| Edward Nathan Sonnenberg | 42 |
| von Seidels | 38 |
| Bredenkamp | 29 |
| PFT Burger | 20 |
| De Beer | 20 |
| Dessington & Dessington | 14 |
| Taberer | 14 |
| Dr Gerntholtz | 13 |
| Leon Pierre Susan | 10 |
| Tshaya Mashabela | 9 |
| Bouwers | 8 |
| DT du Preez | 7 |
| Richards | 6 |
| Dr Samantha Gregory | 6 |
| Gunter | 6 |
| Brian Bacon | 6 |