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” […]
Professor Owen Dean’s much anticipated book, “Awaking the Lion – The case of The Lion Sleeps Tonight” has been published by Tafelberg Publishers. It takes the form of a so-called “short” book and is only available electronically as an e-book from Amazon, Kobo, Kalahari and Leisure Books. The book tells the story behind the story of a […]
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 […]
Recent media reports raised several questions about the transfer of so-called digital “property” by means of a testamentary bequest. These digital works include e-books, songs, videos, movies, applications and other forms of intellectual expression recorded in digital format and distributed to end-users by means of web traders such as Kalahari, Amazon and Apple iTunes. According […]
The introduction of the new IPR from Publicly Funded Research and Development Act is a significant milestone in empowering local universities in their negotiations with industry partners around research funding and managing the results flowing out of such research. The importance and value of intellectual property, which until recently was a vague term in the […]
In this special report, the VineOracle (IPStell’s personal pundit on all things IP) brings news (and her own brand of predictions) for the aesthetically minded visitor. And it is a star-studded cast of high-flyers (and fast swimmers) from Paris and New York representing some of the most exclusive brands. But do not be fooled by […]
All is fair in love and (patent) war, but apparently not when it comes to awarding damages in patent litigation. After nearly 18 months of protracted trench-warfare between Apple and Samsung’s formidable IP legal teams in the Northern District Court of California, Judge Lucy Koh surrendered the matter to a panel of 9 laymen (and […]
Seldom does a fact bear repeating as frequently as the maxim, “There is no copyright in ideas”. And despite the regularity with which this fundamental principle of copyright law is cited, its application remains a bone of contention. Since the Statute of Anne (1710), the common antecedent of modern copyright law, this creature of statute […]
The Exchange Control Regulations (the “Regulations”) have been amended with effect from 8 June 2012 (Government Gazette No. 35430) to provide that transfers of ownership of intellectual property from a South African resident to a non-resident now require prior Treasury approval. While this amendment to the Regulations has drawn comments or criticisms from commentators, these […]
Government, and more particularly the Departments of Trade and Industry and Arts and Culture, entered into the current controversy around the ownership of the copyright in the National Anthem by issuing a media release on 18 June 2012. With respect, its contribution to the debate evidences the same lack of knowledge and insight into Copyright Law that is apparent […]
