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I Want to Protect my Idea!

It is incredibly important to seek appropriate statutory intellectual property protection, be it through a patent, trade mark or copyright. Without acquiring this from the South African Patent Office, entrepreneurs like yourself are at risk of larger, more powerful entities laying claim to your ideas. With more funding and resources, these entities can develop an idea quicker than a private citizen, allowing them to reap the rewards. Gaining appropriate intellectual property protection is not as complicated as it sounds thanks to the help offered to you by the Innovation Fund.

Gaining Patent Protection with the Innovation Fund

The National Research and Development Strategy of 2002 emphasises the need to increase the rate of patenting of inventions and IP due diligence based on publicly financed research. Thus, there is an urgent need to increase the number of patent applications filed for and patents granted by the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO, particularly for inventions arising out of publicly funded research. It is upon this background that the Patent Incentive Fund was put in place by the Innovation Fund.

The purpose of the Incentive Fund is to encourage innovation and increase patenting activity by students and researchers at publicly funded research institutions, in particular higher education institutions and Statutory Science Councils. By providing incentives to students and researchers to file patent applications at the South African Patent Office, the Innovation Fund aims to develop the South African business arena for the benefit of all citizens.

Find out more about how the Patent Support Funds from the Innovation Fund can assist you with everything to patent protection.