Warner/Chappel Music, a music publishing company in the United States of America, claims and exerts copyright in the ubiquitous song “Happy Birthday to You”. It requires that royalty payments should be made to it each and every time this song is sung or used in public. This is a startling proposition as most people probably […]
We all know GOOGLE. It is a facility that enables us to source information on the Internet. The word GOOGLE indicates the identity of a particular service provider and distinguishes those services from similar services rendered by others, such as YAHOO. Each service provider designates its particular services by means of such a mark. The […]
The almost endless capacity of government to waste valuable resources by embarking on half-baked, and socially costly, ideas never ceases to amaze me. What makes the situation deeply troubling (and, not just a little, ironic) is that they sometimes spend money employing consultants to tell them that they are wasting money on these enterprises. If […]
Roll up and hear the good news! Today the new sui generis Protection of Traditional Knowledge Bill was published in the Government Gazette, signalling a major step toward the protection of traditional knowledge (TK) in South Africa. Full text of the Bill available here. This Bill is based on the Protection of TK Bill drafted […]
The Stellenbosch Chair of Intellectual Property (CIP) has repeatedly, thoroughly and honestly expressed its views on the proposed Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (the Traditional Knowledge Bill) in no uncertain terms. Its labours have included extensive research on the consequences for our IP regime if it was to become law, the financial, legal and practical […]
Readers will have observed from perusing the articles on this blog that I have commented on a number of occasions on the proclaimed intention of the Government to pass legislation curtailing or prohibiting the use of trade marks on tobacco products, both on their packages and in advertising. I have expressed the view that by […]
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 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” […]
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 […]
