The South African patent office administers all South African patent renewals (also referred to as annuities or maintenance payments). Most countries, including South Africa, require patent holders to pay a regular fee to maintain the patent.
The first renewal fee is due before the expiry of the third year from a patent's application date.
This first due date is calculated from the PCT international filing date in the case of national phase applications or from the date of filing the complete patent application for convention applications.
After the first due date, renewal fees are due yearly up to 20 years from the application date.
The due date for any payment due may be extended up to 6 months by paying an additional fee. If this extended deadline is missed, the patent has to be restored through a formal application.
The process starts with manually lodging a renewal application with the patent office. This usually takes 1 business day in order to lodge.
A South African patent attorney may lodge the application and does not require a power of attorney to do so. We will assign a patent attorney to attend to your renewal. (See also what happens to my current attorney?)
The patent office will process the application and provide a receipt number. The application number, along with the receipt number, and the official stamp of the office is the renewal certificate. The renewal certificate is sent to the patent attorney who will load it onto our system. You will be notified as soon as the certificate is available for download.