Click on the questions below to see answers to some frequently asked questions.
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.
On the home page, navigate to the main menu and select "Quick Quote" from the menu which will take you to the Quick Quote tool. See the image below for the location of the link on desktop.
If you are on mobile, use the menu to navigate to the link as shown below.
At the top of the Quick Quote page, there is a search box for adding a patent to your quote.
Type your South African patent number in the search box and press enter or click on the "Add" button. Your South African patent number should be in the format "yyyy/sssss" where "yyyy" is the year of the application and "sssss" is a 5-digit serial number. The year and serial number should be separated by a forward slash "/" and should not include any spaces or characters which are not numbers (See also: Where do I find my patent number?). If you have any trouble finding your patent number, please send us an email at info@renext-ip.com and we will gladly assist.
Once you have added a patent, it will appear in the quotation. It will show the title of the patent, the applicant, and the next renewal date. You can remove the patent from the quote by clicking on the trash can icon or adjust the number of years to renew the patent by using the arrow buttons as shown below.
You can add as many patents to the quote as you wish, and you will receive discount based on how many patents are in the quote and how many consecutive years each are renewed. As you increase the number of patents or years to renew, the discount will increase. You can keep track of the current discount as shown below.
Once you are satisfied with the quote, click the "Accept and Pay" button which will take you to the payment screen.
If you are not currently logged in, you will be taken to the Login or Register page. Enter your primary email address and password, if you have previously registered, or register by completing the form under Registration Details.
Once logged in, you will be redirected to the payment page. You can select whether to pay by credit card or, if the total amount of the quote after discount is more than $500, pay by EFT or wire transfer.
This step is optional if you wish to report anything when placing the order. If you notice that something does not look right with the details of the order, such as an incorrect applicant or a spelling mistake, you can add this as a note to the order. The agent responsible for the renewal will receive the note and ensure that everything is in order before processing the renewal.
If you wish to amend the quote at this stage, click the "Edit Quote" button to return to the Quick Quote tool to amend the quote.
If you are satisfied with the order, click pay. This will prompt you to enter your credit card details. (See also: What happens after I pay?)
You will be prompted to input your email address, credit card details, and zip code (use your postal code if you are located outside the US). Complete these details and click pay to continue.
If your payment was successful, you will be redirected to the "Checkout Complete" page. Use the links shown below to navigate from this page to your order history.
(See also: What happens after I pay?)
Your patent number (also referred to as "application number", "patent application number" or "official application number") is a unique number assigned to each application received by the South African patent office.
In South Africa, this application number becomes the patent number once the patent is granted and no separate publication number is issued when the patent is published. The South African patent office requires this number to be displayed on all documentation submitted to the office in relation to the patent (including renewal application forms).
In order for us to administer a renewal application on your behalf, you need to input the patent number in the Quick Quote tool.
Your South African patent number should be in the format "yyyy/sssss" where "yyyy" is the year of the application and "sssss" is a 5-digit serial number. The year and serial number should be separated by a forward slash "/" and should not include any spaces or characters which are not numbers.
The easiest way to find your patent number is to look at any of the official documentation received from the patent office or from your patent attorney. This can be a filing receipt, application form, or even a renewal certificate. The number usually appears in the upper left hand of the form as can be seen from the extracts below. You can also peruse the correspondence from your patent attorney which would usually include this number in the title of the correspondence.
A few examples of how patent numbers appear in official forms are shown in the images below. The images are extracts of official documents which will give you an indication of what to look for.
The first example is a copy of the main application form which has been stamped with the number by the patent office. This is also referred to as a filing receipt.
The second example is a copy of a renewal certificate which has the number added to it.
Due to file names limiting special characters or some search websites not allowing special characters, such as the forward slash "/", in their search terms, South African patents are often written in different formats. It is also not uncommon to add a country prefix (ZA for South Africa) to the beginning of the number. By modifying these numbers to conform to the format required by the Quick Quote tool, you should be able to locate the patent in question. A few examples of such variations are shown below.
ZA2015/00976
ZA 2015/00976
ZA201500976
ZA 201500976
201500976
15/00976
2015/976
15/976
If you have any trouble locating your patent number, please send us an email at info@renext-ip.com with the information you have available, and we will gladly assist you to find your number.
No, you do not need a new power of attorney to process your renewals through our system. South African patent attorneys are registered with the South African patent office and are authorized to file renewals for any patent on the register, regardless of who is currently indicated as address for service.
We negotiate with patent attorneys to obtain discount based on bulk instructions. Once you process your order, we will appoint a patent attorney to attend to the renewal on your behalf. (See also what happens to my current attorney?)
Your current attorney will still be indicated as address for service on your patents and will still be able to act on your behalf. Using our system does not revoke a power of attorney previously granted and you do not need a new power of attorney to use the system.
You can inform your current attorney that you are processing your patent renewals through other channels. It is common practice in the industry to use one attorney to prosecute your application and use another service to attend to the renewals. This is understandable, as renewal applications are merely formalities before the patent office and applicants should not be expected to pay exorbitant fees to maintain their patents.
After payment, you will be able to review your order history as shown below. As soon as the certificate is received from the patent office you will be notified and you can download your certificate from the Order History page.
The Order History page shows the current status of your application. You will receive updates as the status of the order changes. If the order has just been placed, the status will indicate Paid as shown below. Once the order has been accepted by the agent responsible for your renewal, the status will change to Pending. This usually takes about 1 business day.
As soon as your renewal has been processed by the South African patent office, you will receive a notification and the renewal certificate will be available for download from the Order History page and will always be available to keep a record of processed renewals.
