South Africa: Hope for measures to prevent abuse of the patent system
12-05-2023
Why is South Africa not interested in compulsory licences?
21-07-2020
Annabell Gsoedl / Shutterstock.com
Why are people asking for a South Africa-Nigeria IP protection that doesn’t exist? Marco Vatta, Partner at Spoor & Fisher unpicks a mystery.
We have recently received an influx of enquiries from clients regarding the possibility of filing a so-called "SANi patent”. While scratching our collective heads, we quickly realised that the SANi patent is a title bestowed upon a non-existent ‘regional patent’ that supposedly grants patent protection in both South Africa and Nigeria.
The catchy name probably draws inspiration from the “SA” acronym for South Africa and the “Ni” in Nigeria but could also conjure up imagery of the Sani Pass that connects South Africa and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho or the Nissan Sani vehicle, popular in the last century for rugged, pan-African road trips.
In fact, the name is so memorable, and the concept is so clever, that it is easy to see why our clients want to file one.
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South Africa, Nigeria, patents, sanipatent, patents
