Beating About The Rooibos
It is a fact of life that attempts have been made in certain other countries to usurp control of the term or mark ROOIBOS, despite the fact that it is a well-known South African description for a particular plant which gives rise to ROOIBOS tea. The term ROOIBOS is as typically South African as “braaivleis” and “biltong”. It is really part of our South African heritage. The South African authorities have nonetheless taken no concrete or effective steps to protect and control the use of this term in South Africa or elsewhere. Probably the first attempt to hijack ROOIBOS in...
Read MoreBraking With Tradition
INTRODUCTION As will be apparent from perusing the articles posted on this blog indicated by the keywords “traditional knowledge”, The Vine Oracle has been forthright in its criticism and condemnation of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill which seeks to introduce a special form of protection for so-called “traditional knowledge” into each of the Trade Marks, Copyright, Designs and Performance Protection Acts (the Bill is commonly known as the “Traditional Knowledge Bill”). The Vine Oracle has been the proponent of the viewpoint...
Read MoreThe Pan-African Intellectual Property Organization (PAIPO) Draft Statute
Introduction Because intellectual property rights are territorial in nature (i.e. they have to be recognised by the country in which protection is sought), since the expansion of cross-border trade in the 19th century, authors, creators, designers, inventors and traders have sought similar protection in other countries to that which they enjoy in their domestic legal systems, or, at least, be afforded the protection enjoyed by nationals of the foreign country. This need initially gave rise to a number of bilateral agreements, and then multilateral treaties or conventions. These treaties or...
Read MoreA New Tradition In Legislation
The South African government has created a new tradition in drafting and processing legislation through Parliament. This tradition manifests itself in the drafting of half-baked legislation with little or no regard to the provisions of the Constitution and then fighting a huge public outcry against the legislation on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. In some instances the government then concedes that aspects of the legislation are unconstitutional and it seeks to undertake the revision of that legislation on the floor of Parliament in an attempt to circumvent the claims of...
Read MoreThe Pot Of Gold At The Beginning Of The Rainbow
The Iziko South African Art Gallery is currently featuring an expedition entitled “A Centenary Celebration of the life and work of Barbara Tyrrell”. Barbara Tyrrell is a South African artist and author and the exhibition comprises a selection of over 150 of her highly decorative and accurate visual reproductions of Southern African tradition costumes and tribal dress, as well as items of adornment. The various subject matters comprise traditional South African art works and are themselves copyright artistic works. During the 1950’s and 1960’s Barbara Tyrrell undertook a journey...
Read MoreGOLDEN OLDIES? – Gallo Music v Sting Music
Gallo Music and Sting Music have locked horns in the South Gauteng Division of the High Court over copyright in certain songs named Thula Baba, Unomathemba and Siliwelile. Gallo claims that it owns the copyright in these songs and that Sting therefore required their authority to include them in the stage musical Umoja and that it is entitled to claim royalties arising out of the inclusion of these songs in the musical. Sting, on the other hand, claims that the songs are traditional and therefore in the public domain with the result that they are free for use by everyone, including...
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