U.S.A PATENT, DESIGN AND TRADEMARK APPLICATIONS

All USA applications are filed directly by Hahn & Hahn Inc through our Silicon Valley office which is staffed by South African and USA qualified Patent Attorneys (James Wheeler, Vani Moodley, Devasena Reddy) ensuring the highest quality of service while understanding the needs of inventors and corporations.

U.S.A. PATENT

The United States of America is a member of the International Patent Convention and of the PCT.

The filing of a PCT National Phase application in the United States of America costs, on average, about US$ 4 000.00 (as of January 2008) inclusive of the filing of a preliminary amendment to bring the claims into conformity with local patent law. Thereafter, the application will be examined by the USPTO. If the Examiner objects to some or all of the claims, prosecution costs of at least US$ 3 500.00 can be expected. Should the Examiner accept the application, publication and grant costs of about US$ 3 000.00 will be payable.

Please click on the title "Foreign Filings and the PCT" for general information on foreign patent filings.

U.S.A. DESIGNS

The United States of America is a member of the International Patent Convention (Paris Convention)

A design in the US is known as a design patent. A design patent may be granted for any new, non-obvious, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture. A design further relates to the appearance of the article and not to its underlying function or other mechanical aspects. Furthermore, the article must be of a utilitarian nature. Similar to the South African design categories, protection can extend to either the form of the article, or the ornamentation applied thereto.

The duration of the US design is 14 years.

For more information about US design applications, please contact us via the "contact us" link.

Please click on the title "Foreign Design Applications" for general information on foreign design filings.

U.S.A. TRADEMARKS

The United States of America is a member of the Paris Convention under which any resident of a Convention country is entitled to claim the priority date of a first application made in a convention country as that of any subsequent application in any other Convention country within a 6 month period. The US is also a member of the Madrid Protocol for the international registration of trademarks.

A trademark is defined in US law as a mark which may be registered as any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination hereof either used by a person or a person having a bona fide intention to use in commerce the mark to identify and distinguish his/her goods from those of others.

When an application for a trademark is filed in the US, it is examined as to form, whether or not it is in fact registrable, and if it has already been registered. The duration of the US trademark is 10 years from issue, indefinitely renewable for further periods of ten years.

For more information on the individual countries, please select an appropriate country from the pull-down "Select a region" list at the top left hand side of this page or return to our home page and select a country using the interactive map of the world.