Question NW594 to the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology

Reply:

As a preface, this information is held by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), an agency of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic).

a) During the period 1 January to 31 December 2018, a total of 8 655 (eight thousand six hundred and fifty-five) patent applications were filed at the CIPC in the Republic.

Of these 1 884 (one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four) were provisional patent applications (first filing using the Paris Convention Priority), 1 142 (one thousand one hundred and fourty-two) were complete patent applications (which follow a provisional patent application and this application will proceed to grant) and 5 630 (five thousand six hundred and thirty) were Patent Cooperation Treaty national phase applications (an application filed in South Africa after filing an international application with the World Intellectual Property Organisation).

b) The following breakdown of industry areas were recorded [Note that a single application may cut across industry areas and thus more than one area may be designated for a single application].

INDUSTRY OF FOCUS	TOTAL
SECTION A (HUMAN NECESSITIES INCLUDING HEALTH, CLOTHING, AGRICULTURE AND FOOD)	2833
SECTION C (CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY)	2392
SECTION B (PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING)	1243
SECTION G (PHYSICS)	898
SECTION H (ELECTRICITY)	746
SECTION F (MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING)	563
SECTION E (FIXED CONTRUCTIONS)	433
SECTION D (TEXTILES; PAPER)	112

c) Of the 8 655 applications filed, 2 447 (two thousand four hundred and forty-seven) were by South African nationals and 6 208 (six thousand two hundred and eight) by international applications.