World IP Day Public Seminar: Powering Change
Looking for the most recent event? Click here. On 25 April 2018 the Chair of IP Law at the Faculty of Law, and Innovus, marked World IP Day by hosting a public seminar followed by a Q&A panel session on the theme Powering change: Stellenbosch womxn in innovation and creativity. The focus of this seminar was the people behind the innovation, creativity and social impact that underlies IP rights in South Africa and the value of inspired work. It highlighted the personal journeys, views and experiences of six remarkable women who have made, and continue to make, an impact on society by...
Read MoreFull Stop Ahead: Public interest in blocking digital content
It makes for the perfect ideological storm when IP law and ICT law meet and the right to freedom of expression stands in the way. Capitalist and socialist, activist and pacifist, pragmatist and idealist: differing legal experts abound in the battle for, or against, IP rights in the digital environment. Two recent developments which illustrate this tension, might serve South Africans well, if observed with care. First, the recent ruling of the General Court of the European Union in Constantin Film Produktion GmbH v EUIPO[i] made it clear that aural vulgarity could be a bar to the registration...
Read MoreBEPS and Intangibles: How does it impact IP tax structures?
Intangible assets constitute a major value-driver for multi-national enterprises (MNEs). This is even more so for companies that rely on valuable intangibles rather than physical assets to generate financial returns. Intangibles such as patents, design, trademarks (or brands) and copyrights are generally easy to identify, value and transfer and as such attractive for multi-national tax planning structures especially as these rights usually does not have a fixed geographical basis and is highly mobile as a result can be relocated without significant costs. Many MNEs utilize IP structuring...
Read MoreCommentary: Draft Intellectual Property Policy Phase 1 2017
Prof Sadulla Karjiker and Dr Madelein Kleyn recently submitted the following comments to the DTI on the Draft IP Policy Phase 1 2017. The full text of the IP Chair’s commentary may be downloaded here. Introduction The Department of Trade and Industry published the Draft Intellectual Property Policy of the Republic of South Africa Phase I 2017 (the “2017 Draft IP Policy”).[1] The Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, has invited interested persons to submit written comments on the 2017 Draft IP Policy by 17 November 2017,[2] and these comments are submitted in...
Read MoreCopyright in taste? CJEU to decide.
“Whether copyright protection protects tastes has been stirring up emotions in European legal circles for some time. Some say that such protection would be contrary to the idea-expression dichotomy, the notion that ideas and principles underlying any element of a work can never be protected. Others argue protecting taste would negatively affect free competition, among other things. Allowing taste copyright would lead to creative stagnation because when chefs invent new dishes and thus tastes, they always build on already existing dishes.” So writes Prof Charles Gielen, Research...
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