An estimated 50% of patent applications filed in South Africa come from aboard.

To help South Africa's best inventive brains protect and develop their intellectual property, the Department of Science and Technology's Innovation Fund (IF) has launched a definitive handbook, The State of Patenting in South Africa.

A comprehensive guide on the topic, the book was launched at the same time as a major campaign by the IF's Intellectual Property Management Office (IPMO) to help researchers at publicly funded institutions patent their research findings and make South Africa part of the knowledge-driven economy.

Local patents play a vital role in the country's economic development Currently we rank only 39th out of 162 countries in terms of technological achievement. Clearly, we're adopters and not innovators of technology.

A thorough analysis of the local patent landscape was undertaken by senior patent attorney and IPMO director McLean Sibanda.

“If we could succeed in motivating every scientist in South Africa to go one step further beyond just publishing their research results to protect their results before publication and create innovative products that could be patented, South African would leap ahead in the global competitiveness stakes.”

He said researchers had a right to participate in and benefit from the commercialisation of their work.

Researchers are encourage to send their patenting queries to info@patenting.co.za.