In South Africa there is no substantive examination of the claims of a patent application. Once the required formalities of an application have been met, it proceeds to acceptance, publication and grant.
This leaves a granted South African patent vulnerable to attack by third parties should the claims be incorrectly drawn or should they be too wide in scope in the light of examination in other jurisdictions.
It is therefore advisable to consider amendment of South African claims subsequent to a successful examination in one or more examining jurisdictions. Under the South African Patents Act, a patent may be amended at any time before or after grant. However, after grant no amendment is allowable if:
The effect of the amendment would be to introduce new matter or matter not in substance disclosed in the specification before amendment;
The rest of this article is locked for subscribers only. Please login to continue reading.
If you don't have a login, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content. Please use this link and follow the steps.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription to us that we can add you to for FREE, please email Atif Choudhury at achoudhury@worldipreview.com
South Africa Patents Act, pharmaceutical, patentees,