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Protecting Your Design

As we continue this series of Intellectual Property, today we look at the registrations of designs. This has to be one of the tricky ones, as it seems to be vague at best as to what can be registered and how it is registered. So let’s unpack some of the details:
A registered design can either be for aesthetics or for function.
The aesthetics design are granted for the appearance as seen by the eye: colour, shape and pattern. This covers items such as a new shape of the vase or a chair design with a high back and long flowing armrests. The form (shape) and colours are both covered in the aesthetic design. This can be registered and will give you protection for 15 years.
The function design covers the features that are described by the function of the item: the movement and working parts of a product. This includes items such as a lock mechanism, a clutch pencil or a window opener. A functional design once registered will give you cover for 10 years.
Both these forms of IP give you the protection from others being able to copy or use the registered designs without your permission. The obvious question is how closely do they have to copy your item for it to be an infringement? This is the big issue and comes down to the way your design is described in the registration. Your application should be well written by a legal professional with experience in design registrations and include drawings, cad designs, photos and 3D renders of the product.
All registered designs need to be filed in the country that you require protection in. This obviously raises the cost of registration and should be considered carefully when applying to balance the cost to reward for your required protection.
We have a team on hand to assist you with this process and to answer any questions you may have about your new invention. Do not get caught without the required protection, it could end up costing you your future income.

By |2017-11-22T09:31:15+02:00November 22nd, 2017|Marketing|0 Comments

Tesla announce their entry into the trucking sector

Tesla, the worlds best innovation company, launched their latest toy for transport, the Tesla Semi. A fully electric truck that seems to outperform any diesel truck in the same class in safety, expense and performance. If this is what we can expect from electric trucks in the future, we could begin to see a huge drop in road accidents and breakdowns in the near future.

Watch the event here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/tesla-semi

If you watch to the end of the 9 minutes, you will also see their launch of the latest roadster: the fastest production road car EVER.

By |2017-11-21T13:07:30+02:00November 21st, 2017|Techno Tuesday|0 Comments

Should you be keeping your shopping lists?

Do you save your shopping lists? My dining room table is littered with old lists written on the back of envelopes or scraps of paper, which have been pulled out of my handbag when I’m looking for something. Occasionally, I’ll bundle them up and dump them in the recycling. They are no longer useful.

Now imagine if I kept all the lists and each week compared what I bought with the last week? Over time I’d be able to draw some insights from the information, such as how often we bought toilet paper, how much we spent on average over a month, or how much the hot chocolate quantity increased over winter. Now the lists are useful, have value and can help our family make decisions around our spending. This is Financial Reporting and it works the same for your business.

The key element necessary for reporting to be useful is there has to be a comparison of some kind:

– Compare this week to last week to establish trends;

– Compare the reality to the plan (the budget); or

– Compare the income to the expenses to see if the activity is viable.

For comparison to be valuable, the items you are comparing need to be for the same period and for the same thing. If I want to know if the price of oranges has increased since last week, I need to compare oranges with oranges and not oranges with apples. Also, it isn’t helpful to compare what I spent on ink or paper this week with the whole of last month, it is better to compare this month with last month, to gain any useful insights.

We must not forget that the whole purpose of putting together financial reports is to provide useful information to make decisions. If the type of information or the format it’s presented in, does not give insights into the reality of the business situation, it is a waste of time. Choose wisely what you report on, as too much information can also detract from the value of the reports and confuse the decision-making process.

Next week we wrap up this series by discussing how we can reduce our financial risks.

By |2017-11-20T08:48:36+02:00November 20th, 2017|Financial Management|0 Comments

An introduction to Patents

This article comes from the website of VonSiedels with their permission

What is a patent?
A patent is a limited monopoly granted by the state to an inventor, or other person entitled to the invention, in exchange for a full disclosure of the invention to the public. This monopoly entitles the patent holder to prevent others from using the invention in any practical manner for the duration of the patent so that only the patent holder enjoys any profit or advantage that the invention affords for the period. After expiry of the period members of the public is free to use the invention.
Is my invention patentable?
To be patentable in South Africa an invention must be new, inventive and useful.
“New” means that the invention has not been made available to the public anywhere in the world – by word of mouth, by use, in any printed publication, or in any other way – before a first application is made for a patent. It is difficult to establish whether an invention is, in fact, new, but novelty may be assessed by carrying out searches through existing printed publications that include previously published patent specifications.
“Inventive” means that the invention must not be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention relates. Put differently, the invention must not be so similar to what was available or used previously that it required little or no ingenuity to make the invention; that is to say, it must involve an inventive step. For example, it would be obvious to make an article that was previously made exclusively of metal in a plastic material, if there were no special and unforeseeable advantages to making it in plastic.
“Useful” means the invention must be capable of being applied in trade, industry or agriculture.
In addition to the above three requirements, there are certain “inventions” which cannot be patented in South Africa. The most important of these are pure business methods and computer programs. This prohibition, however, does not extend to inventions that merely make use of business methods or computer programs, while not constituting business methods or computer programs as such. We urge you to contact us if you are uncertain as to whether an invention constitutes a pure business method or computer program.
Lastly, a method of treatment of the human or animal body by surgery, therapy or diagnosis is not patentable in South Africa.
How long does a patent last?
A South African patent lasts 20 years from the date of application, subject to the payment of annual renewal fees as from the third anniversary of the filing date.
How easily can someone else get around my patent?
The scope of protection afforded by a patent is defined by the patent claims. A well-drafted set of patent claims will prevent others from being able to reverse-engineer the invention by including or excluding inessential features while still using the basic idea of the invention. This is why the use of patent attorneys who are experienced in the drafting of patent specifications is so important.
What can I do with a patent?
A patent is property and may be sold (by way of assignment) or licensed for use by others. Alternatively, a patent can be used defensively to prevent others from exploiting the invention, provided the patent holder exercises with the invention to an adequate extent.
How do I apply for a patent?
A patent application is made by filing a patent specification, together with the necessary forms and government fees, at the Patent Office in Pretoria. The patent specification, which includes a description of the invention as well as any drawings which may be necessary for a clear understanding of the description, may be either a provisional or complete patent specification.
If the invention is not yet in its final form it is preferable to file a provisional patent application first, and then a complete patent application within 12 months, because improvements made to the invention can be incorporated into the complete patent specification. A complete application may be in the first instance if sufficient information about the invention and its implementation are available.
If given a description of the invention, we will prepare the patent specification and the necessary forms and file a patent application on your behalf. All the administrative functions will be carried out by our offices.
How do I get patents in other countries?
A patent application must be filed in each country in which protection is sought. However, in respect of most countries in the world, corresponding foreign patent applications can be filed within 12 months from the first patent application in terms of the Paris Convention.
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides a mechanism to delay the filing of individual foreign applications by a further 18 months and also provides a facility for tailoring a patent specification according to the results of an international search and examination. Should you require patent protection in more than 2 or 3 foreign countries, we usually recommend filing a PCT patent application, unless it is essential that granted patents be obtained in the foreign countries as soon as possible.
A PCT application must be filed within 12 months from the date of first filing a patent application, regardless of whether the first patent application is a provisional or complete South African patent application.
What are the costs involved?
The cost involved in preparing and filing a provisional or complete patent application will vary from case to case and will depend on the length of the patent specification and that will, in turn, depend on the technology and the type of invention.

By |2017-11-15T15:36:41+02:00November 15th, 2017|General, Legal|0 Comments

Beth Schmidt Founder and Executive Director Wishbone

Beth Schmidt is the founder and Executive Director of Wishbone. Wishbone is a scalable web platform that links at-risk high school students with the online donor community to fund their educational dreams.

These opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities help them identify and pursue their passions and career goals.

This video is produced by Kauffman Foundation for Khan Academy.

 

By |2017-11-14T11:54:29+02:00November 14th, 2017|Techno Tuesday|0 Comments

What to do with all the slips in your wallet?

In our series in financial management, we are talking about Recordkeeping this week. Recordkeeping comes in many different forms; people keep diaries to record their day, people keep a record of the statistics for their favourite football team, people record the rainfall on a daily basis. Each of these records serves the same purpose – to summarise information in a way that helps us to make decisions.

The same applies to financial recordkeeping in a business. Whether it is recording cash payments in one of those old-fashioned ledger books, importing bank statements into an accounting system, or typing in the details of your slips on a spreadsheet, the purpose remains, to make sense of the noise and create order from the chaos.

A recordkeeping system in your business takes all the details (payments, invoices, slips) and summarises them in the way that is useful. Typically similar items are grouped together, say, payments in a spreadsheet. These are then categorised in some way – payments for entertainment, groceries, stationery, rental, salaries, etc. In this way, we can use this information to draw out some conclusion, such as, how much are we actually spending on entertainment, how much has the spending on office consumables increased over the last 3 months, how much does leave cost the company?

The objectives of a good financial recordkeeping system are:

– To include all transactions

– To use consistent categories to be able to compare similar transactions over time

– To produce summarised information in the same format as the plan or budget

– To be a data source that is useful and relevant

– To be up-to-date on a regular basis, so the information is useful for timely decision making

Nowadays, a lot of the legwork of a recordkeeping system is automated in an accounting package. A number of accounting packages are cloud-based and inexpensive, taking the hassle out of updating a spreadsheet at the last minute.

If you are undecided or have not yet considered a financial package for your business, then please contact us for some recommendations.

Next week, we’ll look at the output from all this recordkeeping, the financial reports, where it finally starts to actually help you run your business.

By |2017-11-13T08:43:07+02:00November 13th, 2017|Financial Management|0 Comments

Make your Year End lists

As a team or alone make a list of all the things you have not yet gotten to this year. Time to purge that guilt and get it all on paper for all to see. This is great therapy for a team to share the items that were not done. IT is not a guilt trip, but a time of celebration of what was not done because you were too busy doing other things.

Then cross off the items that are now no longer relevant to the business or team. This leaves you with a new list that will feed into next week’s plan.

 

By |2017-11-10T09:10:50+02:00November 10th, 2017|General|0 Comments

Do I have the right to Copywrite or should I Trademark?

Before we get into the meat of this discussion, let’s define what these two entities are: Copywrite and Trademark. Both are forms of intellectual property protection, but each protects different types of assets:
A Copywrite is used to protect the rights of an author or creator of one of the following: written stories, books, artwork, songs, films and radio or television programmes. The ownership of such items normally lies with the creator, unless a contract states otherwise and is valid for 50 years from the end of the year in which the item was created.
A Trademark is a legally registered ownership over a picture, signature, colour, numeral, shape, configuration, pattern, container or any combination of these. Normally a trademark will be used to protect a brand, product or related slogan and logo. A Trademark is valid for blocks of 10 years at a time.
A Copywrite protection can be issued by the creator or owner at any time simply by stating this on the works or by association to that creator or owner.
A Trademark needs to be registered with the Trade Marks Office and should or must be registered using a legal company to ensure that you file the correct forms and against the correct class of product group related to your item. There are 45 different classes under which you need to select from – see them here
The process will first require a detailed search of what currently exists, as any similar or conflicting applications will not be registered. You can do a preliminary search here: http://esearch.cipc.co.za/ first before you incur any legal fees and potentially waste your money on lawyers doing what you can do yourself.
Once the application is registered it can take up to a year for final registration. This is mainly due to the backlog and slow process of the registration offices. Once registered you have the right to use and prevent others from using your slogan or brand etc.
Is it a good idea to register a trademark?
Yes: if you have something that will be used to make money or that can be sold as an asset later. A Trademark ads value to the item and will be valuable in sale negotiations. But if you are just creating smaller items, products or brands, do not waste time or effort going through the process. It is best to chat with someone and get advice on your circumstances. Just remember that if you ask a Trademark Lawyer if you should register a Trademark, guess what they will say….
Please remember as, in all legal issues, there are exceptions to what I have stated above, so do not use this as a legal binding guide on IP.
Next week we chat about Patents and Designs.

By |2017-11-08T09:45:03+02:00November 8th, 2017|Strategy|0 Comments
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