South Africa to increase patent and design fees
The South African Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has announced that large corporate entitles will pay increased fees for patent and design services from July.
Also from July, the South African Patent Office will distinguish between large corporate entitles and small, medium and micro entities (SMME) with regards to the fees payable.
For example, it is currently 590ZAR ($41.46) to file a new South African patent application. From July, SMMEs will continue to pay this amount, but larger corporate entities will be charged 1,100ZAR ($77.48).
SMMEs will continue to pay the current annual renewal fee of ZAR100 ($7) for registered designs, whereas corporate entities will pay ZAR1,000 ($70) for the renewal from July.
“The fees for corporate entities show a significant increase whereas those for SMMEs remain largely unchanged,” law firm De Beer Attorneys said in a statement.
For the purpose of the fee difference, corporate entities are those which do not qualify as SMMEs under the National Small Business Amendment Act.
As explained by De Beer, corporate entities must have fewer than 100 employees (up to 200 in certain industries), turnover of less than an amount between 4 million ZAR and 50 million ZAR ($281,734 to $3,521,675) depending on the industry, and total gross assets of between 2 million ZAR and 18 million ZAR ($140,867 to $1,267,803) depending on the industry.
SMMEs will need to complete and submit a ‘Declaration of Entity Status Form’ when filing new patent or design applications to qualify for the reduced fees, as well as when renewing an existing patent or design.
The South African Patent Office is not the only IP office introducing higher patent fees.
Last year, the UK Intellectual Property Office raised patent fees to allow it to maintain a “high quality, efficient services”, while the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand proposed increasing patent examination fees by 50% to recoup the costs of delivering patent services.
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