The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission is an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa. The CIPC was established by the Companies Act, 2008 as a juristic person to function as an organ of state within the public administration, but as an institution outside the public service.
The vision of CIPC is to be the gateway to sustainable formal economic participation and investment for all in South Africa.
Our Functions (Functions of the Commission)
– Registration of Companies, Co-operatives and Intellectual Property Rights (trademarks, patents, designs, and copyright) and the maintenance thereof
– Disclosure of Information on its business registers
– Promotion of education and awareness of Company and Intellectual Property Law
– Promotion of compliance with relevant legislation
– Efficient and effective enforcement of relevant legislation
– Monitoring compliance with and contraventions of financial reporting standards, and making recommendations thereto to – – Financial Reporting Standards Council (FRSC)
– Licensing of Business rescue practitioners
– Report, research, and advise Minister on matters of national policy relating to the company and intellectual property law
Our Service Turnaround Times
Important to note
– The standards are an indication of the maximum time it will take to process 90% of received applications.
– CIPC is committed to continuing to work on improving its service delivery standards and these will be reviewed every six months, as our systems and processes improve. Kindly note that CIPC is prioritizing the processing of online applications or lodgments relative to the manual lodgments. Therefore customers are encouraged to file their applications electronically.
– These standards will be adhered to on condition that:
–> Customers submit accurate and complete information.
–> The Customer’s account has sufficient funds available for the transaction to be processed.
–> Queries about our service delivery standards not being met should be lodged by submitting a query via the Query Resolution System (QRS).
3-tier escalation process (Automatically escalated)
When a query is lodged via the Query Resolution System, the customer will receive a reference number, which should be used in all correspondence with CIPC relating to the inquiry.
1st tier – 3 days to attend to the query
If the query is not attended to within two days after submission, it will automatically be escalated to the 2nd tier of the escalation process, namely to the manager of the business unit.
2nd tier – 2 days to attend to the query
The manager of the business unit has three business days to attend to the query, and if not done, it will automatically escalate to the 3rd tier of the escalation process, namely the senior manager of the business division.
3rd tier – 5 days to attend to the query
The senior manager of the business unit has 5 business days to follow up and attend to the query.
Complaint to the Ombudsman
If transactions are not completed within the stipulated service delivery standards, and if the 3-tier query escalation process has been followed, the customer may lodge a complaint with the CIPC Ombudsman. The client should have all the necessary or supporting documents, as well as the reference number received when the enquiry was lodged via the Query Resolution system, handy to lodge a complaint to the Ombudsman on the following email contacts: ombud@cipc.co.za. Kindly note that the complaints will not be considered if there is no proof that the query resolution team has failed to resolve the query.
Structure
