News
UCT Inventors will be receiving personal patent portfolio reports in the near future, but please email us if you would like your one now.
The patent reports are typically useful for updating your CV, or for NRF ratings. The report lists all the patent families that you are listed as an inventor on, as well as the application dates, status and territories involved.
The World Intellectual Property (IP) Day is celebrated each year on 26 April and this year the theme is “Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity”. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has selected this theme to recognise and celebrate the contribution of women in driving global change through science, innovation and the arts.
UCT was recently granted a US patent for its maxillofacial distractor, a medical device for the reconstruction of the human upper jaw (maxilla). This device has been jointly invented by A/Prof George Vicatos of Mechanical Engineering, Dr Rushdi Hendricks who is a maxillofacial surgeon in private practice, and James Boonzaier while studying at UCT. Dr Hendricks recently completed a PhD related to this work.
The total income from IP commercialisation was R 3.78m and a total of 4 new UCT spin-off companies were formed, the highest ever in a year. 41 invention disclosures were received by RC&I and 72 new patent applications were filed at different stages of patenting (up from 67 in 2016) and 16 patents were granted.