Under the current COVID-19 lockdown circumstances in South Africa, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) recently announced a closure of the Patents & Designs, Copyright and Trade Mark Divisionsuntil at least 20 April 2020. As a result, no applications for patents, designs or trade marks can be filed during this time.
We understand that many applicants wish to protect their
inventions and establish a priority date for their applications
under the Paris Convention, in order to enable them to disclose and
start manufacturing and selling their inventions.
KISCH IP is able to assist any applicant
to obtain a priority
dateduring this
lockdown period by
filing foreign priority founding
applicationswith
having similar costs to that of a counterpart South African
application. This will allow applicants to proceed to commercialise
their inventions as if an application for the protection thereof
was filed in South Africa.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.