South Africa Case Law

Water Renovation (Pty) Ltd v Gold Fields of SA Ltd (481/91)

Water Renovation (Pty) Ltd v Gold Fields of SA Ltd (481/91) [1993] ZASCA 169; 1994 (2) SA 588 (AD); [1994] 2 All SA 33 (A) (12 November 1993)

Court

Supreme Court of Appeal

Case number

481/91

Judges

Harms, Botha, E M Grosskopf, Milne, Nicholas

The Supreme Court of Appeal held that the proposed amendment to the patent specification, specifically the introduction of insert A into claim 21 and its dependent claims, did not serve to distinguish the claims from the prior art disclosed in the Pulles paper. The court found that insert A was not an essential integer of the invention as described in the specification, and its inclusion was a stratagem rather than a substantive limitation. The patentee was bound by its admissions that claims 21 to 25 were only entitled to the priority date of the complete specification, making them anticipat…

Source excerpt

• Patent Amendment
• Priority Date
• Novelty
• Anticipation
• Co Inventorship
• Fair Basis