June 2007

Closure of Patent Office until Further Notice

Please be advised that due to the strike by public servants at the South African Patent Office which started on 1 June 2007 and which may continue for an indeterminate period, out of an abundance of caution we are filing all applications for which we have instructions already, on any occasion on which the Patent Office will be open.

We expect the days on which the Patent Office is closed to be declared Dies Non with the priority deadline falling on the next day on which the Patent Office will be open, even if this is weeks later.

In any event, in the case of PCT National Phase applications in South Africa, an extension of the 31 month deadline for upto 3 months may be granted on good cause. We believe closure of the Patent Office on the relevant date is such a good cause.

In the case of South African complete applications claiming priority from a South African provisional application a three month extension of the 12 month term for the filing of the complete patent application may be obtained upon payment of a fee.

As regards the filing of PCT applications at the South African Receiving Office, once again the Dies Non principal should apply, in addition to which restoration of the priority date may be obtained under PCT rule 26Bis3 if the missing of the deadline was unintentional and, optionally, good cause can be shown.