Trade mark renewal in South Africa
A South African trade mark lasts ten years and can be renewed for ever. When the ten years actually start, what happens if you miss the date, and the one thing renewal does not protect you from.
The short answer: a South African trade mark registration runs for ten years from the date you filed the application, not from the date it was registered, and it can be renewed in further ten-year periods indefinitely. Renewal is administrative. It does not re-examine your mark and nobody re-argues its registrability. What it does do is keep the registration alive, and a registration that lapses is a great deal harder to get back than it is to keep.
The date catches people out more than anything else on this page. Examination in South Africa often takes two to three years, so a mark registered in 2020 off a 2017 application falls due in 2027, not 2030. If you have been counting from the registration certificate, you are counting from the wrong date.
When your renewal falls due
Section 37 of the Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993 governs duration and renewal. The period runs from the filing date, and each renewal runs ten years from the last one.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Filing date | The ten-year clock starts here. Not the registration date. |
| Registration | Often two to three years later. The clock does not restart. |
| Six months before expiry | The renewal can be filed. This is the sensible window. |
| Expiry date | Ten years from filing. Renew by now and nothing further is payable. |
| Up to six months after expiry | Late renewal is still possible. CIPC charges a R48 penalty on top of the renewal fee. |
| More than six months after expiry | CIPC lists a further R145 restoration-related fee, but in practice it is not a simple late payment. See below. |
What renewal costs
| Fee | |
|---|---|
| Renewal, first mark or class | R2,700 |
| Each additional mark or class | R1,900 |
| Late renewal, within six months of expiry | R900, plus CIPC’s R48 penalty |
| More than six months after expiry | CIPC’s R145, plus a restoration process at roughly R3,000 to R4,000 |
Renewing several marks at once is materially cheaper per mark, which is why we handle a portfolio in a single pass rather than mark by mark as each date arrives.
Nobody reminds you. CIPC does not write to trade mark owners to tell them a renewal is approaching, and an address for service that has gone stale means even the correspondence that does exist reaches nobody. Marks are lost this way regularly, and almost always by owners who assumed a notice would arrive.
Miss it by more than six months and it stops being a payment
Inside the six-month grace period, late renewal is simply a renewal with a penalty on it. CIPC’s own fee is R48 and the mark carries on.
Past six months, the picture changes. CIPC publishes a further R145 restoration-related fee, and it is easy to read that number and assume the problem costs R145 to solve. It does not. In practice the Registrar may remove the mark, and getting it back is a restoration: a separate process that can require a special search, an affidavit explaining the lapse, and advertisement so that anyone who wishes to oppose the restoration can do so. Realistically that runs to a further R3,000 to R4,000 on top of the renewal itself.
And restoration is not guaranteed. While the mark is off the register, somebody else can apply for it. The gap between a R48 penalty and a R4,000 process with an uncertain outcome is six months of not knowing the date.
Renewal does not protect you from removal for non-use
This is the part most owners do not know, and it is the reason renewal deserves five minutes of thought rather than a payment.
Paying the renewal fee keeps the registration on the register. It does not make the registration enforceable. Under section 27 of the Act a mark that has not been used in good faith for a continuous period of five years, in relation to the goods or services it is registered for, is vulnerable to removal on the application of an interested party. A competitor who wants your mark can apply to strip it, and a run of paid renewals is no answer to that application.
So renewal is the natural moment to ask a question nobody asks at filing: are you still using this mark, on these goods, in this form? If the business has moved on, the honest options are to narrow the specification to what you actually use, to file afresh for what you now sell, or to let a mark go deliberately rather than pay for another decade of something unenforceable.
Renewal is the cheapest moment to correct the record
This is the part that saves real money, and almost nobody outside the profession knows it.
At renewal, amendments to the record can be filed electronically. A change of address for service, a change to the proprietor’s name or address, the recordal of a new owner after an assignment, even corrections to the mark’s own details – all of it can be lodged online as part of the renewal.
Outside the renewal window, the same changes are a paper exercise. They have to be printed and physically delivered to CIPC by courier. That costs more, takes longer, and is simply less robust: paper goes astray, and you have far less visibility of what has actually been received and processed.
So the ten-yearly renewal is the one moment when housekeeping is quick and cheap. Do it then, or pay more and wait longer to do it later.
What to check while you are renewing
A renewal is the one moment every ten years when someone looks at the record. Four things are worth checking while it is open.
- Does the register still show the right owner? If the business was sold, restructured, or the mark was filed in a founder’s name and never moved into the company, the register is wrong. Correcting it is a recordal, and an assignment that has never been recorded is not effective against third parties.
- Is the proprietor’s name and address current? A stale address for service is how deadlines get missed, including this one.
- Does the specification still describe what you sell? A class you filed in is not a blanket. Your protection is the wording of the specification, so goods you have added since are probably not covered, even in a class you already hold.
- Is anything else in the portfolio due? Marks filed in the same campaign usually fall due together. It is cheaper and safer to handle them in one pass.
How we handle renewals
If we filed the mark, the renewal date is diarised from the filing date and we come to you before it falls due, with the four checks above already done. You do not have to track anything.
If another firm filed it, we can take over the record and the diary. That is a change of address for service, and it costs nothing beyond the recordal itself.
Either way you can see every mark, its filing date and its next renewal date in your client portal, without asking us and without a fee. We do not charge clients to look at the state of their own portfolio.
Frequent questions
When exactly is my trade mark renewal due?
Ten years from the filing date of the application, and every ten years after that. Not ten years from the registration date. Because examination often takes two to three years, those two dates are usually years apart.
What happens if I miss the renewal date?
Within six months of expiry it is still a straightforward late renewal: CIPC adds a R48 penalty and the mark carries on. After six months CIPC lists a further R145 restoration-related fee, but that number is misleading. The Registrar may remove the mark, and getting it back is a restoration, which can require a special search, an affidavit and advertisement for opposition purposes, realistically a further R3,000 to R4,000. It is also not guaranteed, and while the mark is off the register somebody else can apply for it.
What does a trade mark renewal cost in South Africa?
R2,700 for the first mark or class and R1,900 for each additional mark or class. A late renewal inside the six-month grace period adds R900 plus CIPC’s R48 penalty. Renewing a portfolio in one pass is materially cheaper per mark than handling each date separately.
Does CIPC remind me when a renewal is due?
No. The register does not warn trade mark owners, and there is no reminder service you can rely on. If your attorney is not diarising the date, nobody is.
Does renewing protect my mark from being cancelled?
Not from removal for non-use. Under section 27 a mark not used in good faith for five continuous years can be removed on the application of an interested party, no matter how many renewals have been paid. Renewal keeps the registration alive; use is what keeps it enforceable.
Can I change the goods or services when I renew?
You can narrow a specification, and narrowing to what you actually use is sometimes the sensible defensive move. You cannot widen one. Goods or services you have added since filing need a fresh application, even in a class you already hold.
Can I change the owner or address details when I renew?
Yes, and renewal is by far the best moment to do it. At renewal these amendments can be lodged electronically – the address for service, the proprietor’s name or address, the recordal of a new owner after an assignment, even corrections to the mark’s details. At any other time the same changes must be printed and physically delivered to CIPC by courier, which costs more, takes longer and is less reliable.
Can you take over renewals from another firm?
Yes. It is a change of the address for service on the register, recorded once, after which the renewal diary and the CIPC correspondence come to us.
Related guides
Terms used above are defined in the trade mark glossary – see renewal, restoration, non-use removal and recordal.
