The Copyright Amendment Draft Bill (GG No 39028, 27 July 2015) (‘the Bill’) is by all accounts a grave misfortune and a study in amateur law-making. Enough has been said on this point to make it clear that the DTI has tripped at the first hurdle and that a re-evaluation is the only hope of […]
The Licensing Executives Society (LES) of South Africa will present its one day short course L.E.S 101: Introduction to Licensing in Stellenbosch on 20 August 2015 at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. This course, aimed at everyone with an interest or role in IP rights management, commercialisation and/or technology transfer is an absolute must […]
The figure of speech used in describing something as a “curate’s egg” derives from a cartoon by G du Maurier published in the British humorous magazine Punch in November 1895. It depicts a meek curate, faced with a bad egg at the Bishop’s breakfast table, commenting that it is partly good. In other words it […]
On 27 July 2015 the Department of Trade and Industry (“the DTI”) published the Copyright Amendment Bill 2015 (the “Amendment Bill”) in the Government Gazette, asking for public comment within 30 days from such date. Given the number of issues contained in the Amendment Bill that needs to be addressed, it will be almost impossible […]
Technology companies take note: Google may have found a way to beat patent trolls, and you are invited to join them. The term “patent troll” refers to an entity which exists for the sole purpose of enforcing or licensing patent rights which were not the result of its own innovation. Although the term “patent assertion […]
Section 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that it is the supreme law of the country and that any law inconsistent with it is invalid. This provision creates the necessity to interpret the Copyright Act in a manner consistent with the Constitution at the risk of the Act, or […]
You wait ages for a reported judgment concerning “needletime” royalties pursuant to section 9A of the Copyright Act, and then two come along at approximately the same time. There were two reported decisions, one, an enquiry by the Copyright Tribunal, and, the other, a judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal following an appeal from […]
Prof Frederick Mostert, extraordinary Professor of IP Law and member of the Chair of Intellectual Property Law at Stellenbosch University, is one of the five 2015 inductees to the IP Hall of Fame. Prof Mostert is past president of the International Trademark Association (INTA) and former chief intellectual property counsel of luxury group Richemont. He is […]
Get up, stand up. For Music – This is the theme of World IP Day 2015, celebrated worldwide on 26 April under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This year the focus is on the protection and promotion of musical works and performing artists. As WIPO explains: “When Bob Marley and the […]
On 20 March 2015 the Department of Science and Technology published the first draft of the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Bill, 2014 (the “IKS Bill) and called for comments. The Chair of IP Law has responded to this call and delivered extensive representations on the IKS Bill authored by two […]
