Open Letter – Plain Packaging Legislation and the Constitution
NOTE: The following open letter has been delivered by email to the office of the Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa on 31 July 2014. The contents of this letter is published here in furtherance of the debate on plain packaging legislation and the potential impact on the Constitutional rights of the proprietor. OPEN LETTER 31 July 2014 The Honourable Minister of Health Dr Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi Civitas Building Corner of Thabo Sehume and Struben Streets Private Bag X828 PRETORIA 0001 Dear Dr Motsoaledi, RE: PREVENTION OF USE OF TRADE MARKS ON PACKAGING FOR...
Read MoreA Spoon Full of Sugar for Plain Packaging
History has taught us that the South African Government, and the Legislature in particular, will not hesitate to make bad law. The volume of carelessly drafted, ill conceived, unconstitutional and overtly political laws that the public has been force-fed in recent years is so great that recourse to the Constitutional Court has become a pedestrian matter. In fact, the alarm felt over perpetual ham-handed law making is only outstripped by Government’s brazen disregard for public cooperation in the democratic process. This even after the public, who are expected to prop up and thereafter obey...
Read MoreFormula For Plain (Bland) Packaging
As of 6 December this year you will no longer see a nurturing mother feeding her happy baby a bottle of formula milk as an advertisement in any newspaper, magazine, on a website or on television. In fact, you will not see the names of any brand or logos of infant formula, follow-up formula or powdered milks, or feeding bottles, teats and feeding cups for infants being promoted anywhere. Well, you will still see the names on the products as you are standing in front of the shelf in the supermarket and wondering which product is the best option for your little angel. You will have to try and...
Read MoreIn vino veritas – Mettenheimer v Zonquasdrif Vineyards
While trade mark infringement cases are not unusual, there are few decisions in which the central issue which required determination was whether the respective goods involved were so similar that it would gave rise to a likelihood of deception or confusion. It is for this reasonthat the decision in Mettenheimer & Another v Zonquasdrif Vineyards CC & Others ([2013] ZASCA 152) deserves consideration. Mr Mettenheimer, the first appellant, was the proprietor of the ZONQUASDRIFT trade mark, registered in class 33 in respect of alcoholic beverages, including wine. Importantly, the trade...
Read MoreGovernment’s reflections on the world of Intellectual Property
INTRODUCTION Have you ever basked in the warm sunshine of a glorious summer’s day, in daydreaming mode, and allowed your mind simply to wander at random? You start with a thought, you turn it over in your mind, and then a point is reached where you go off at a tangent and muse over some largely unrelated thought, only to be diverted in yet another direction. Eventually you may go the full circle and come back momentarily to the point of departure, before heading off again elsewhere. Daydreaming can be a very pleasant experience and it has the beauty that you do not have to make any...
Read MoreThe Rooibos Rush
South Africa is no stranger to the fever that accompanies the discovery of gemstones or precious metal in a particular region. Indeed, for decades the mineral riches of our nation were legendary across the world and the object of several battles for imperial, colonial or feudal control over the diamond, gold, platinum and coal fields of South Africa. As a testament to this, the foothills of Table Mountain is home to the Rhodes Memorial dedicated to the fervently imperialist, English mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes, former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, founder of De Beers Consolidated...
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