The story goes that the manager of a tractor manufacturing plant who, unable to solve a mechanical breakdown, as a last resort sent for a retired technician who had worked on the machinery for many years.  Following a brief inspection, the technician took a hammer from his toolbox, and skillfully tapped the machine on its side, resulting in the machine miraculously spluttering into life again. The next day the technician submitted a bill for R5 000 to the manager. The flabbergasted manager protested profusely, and demanded a detailed breakdown of the offending account, whereupon the technician explained that only R500 was for actually hitting the machine.  The remaining R4 500 was for knowing where to hit…

Much has been said in recent times about the transformation from a resource economy to a knowledge economy.  From an economy where it is all important to have the machine, to an economy where there is a newfound appreciation for the value of knowing where to hit the machine.  The asset base of this new economy resides in technology, information and know-how.  Collectively speaking – Intellectual Property, which in turn includes patents, registered designs, trademarks and plant breeder’s rights.

Patents and registered designs are two of the primary building blocks of any intellectual property portfolio, and essentially entail a limited monopoly of fixed duration granted by the state to an inventor of a novel and inventive invention, or the designer of a novel and original design.  Although there is some degree of overlap between patents and registered designs, the primary difference is that a patent is aimed at protecting an underlying inventive concept, whereas a registered design protects the actual appearance of a product.  In the case of patents, the appearance of the article embodying the design is immaterial, but in registered designs protection resides in that what is perceived by the eye.

A patentable invention can take a number of forms, such as for example a process (e.g. process of making a fertiliser), a method (e.g. a method of applying a fertiliser), a machine (e.g. a new combine harvester), a device (e.g. a tool or apparatus), a chemical compound/composition (e.g. new pesticide composition), and microbiological processes (e.g. GM plants). In fact, in South Africa almost anything can be considered an invention, provided that it is new, inventive, and can be applied in trade, industry or agriculture.  A registered design relates to the actual appearance of an article and can be aesthetic in nature (e.g. the shape of a bottle or the pattern applied to a piece of fabric) or functional (e.g. the shape and configuration of a gear or a metal extrusion).

Once a patent or registered design has been granted, the owner has a monopoly which allows him to control a range of commercial activities relating to that invention or design. It should however be noted that the process of filing a patent or design application is a somewhat intricate process, and also that it forms but one part of an integrated intellectual property protection and commercialisation strategy. It is therefore advisable to seek the advice of one of our patent attorneys at an early stage, and definitely before public disclosure, to ensure that a proper and efficient intellectual property management strategy is implemented.