If you cannot beat them, join them. For that reason this Chair of IP has decided to announce a NEW sui generis Protection of Traditional Knowledge Bill in the hope that something may yet be done to save us all. Government’s current attempt at protecting traditional knowledge by amending current IP statutes remains an unmitigated disaster, […]
A journalist who cannot define plagiarism is nearly as useful as a bucket without a bottom. Similarly, while the nation is expected to rise in defence of the independence of the press (and rightly so), one might be excused for thinking that all members of the media are capable of independent thought. Unfortunately, judging by […]
Major sports are big business and vast sums of money are involved in staging sport events. This global trend was brought into sharp focus in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which provided an excellent example of the role that branding plays in major sports, both generally and more especially in South Africa., explains […]
In recent news, the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) has called on government to revise the Patents Act to reduce the patent protection available to pharmaceutical inventions, which the organisation believes is responsible for the high cost of medicines and a delay in the availability of generic medicines. The organisation refers to the Doha Declaration, which has been […]
So, the Department of Trade and Industry (“DTI”) has finally gone ahead and done it. It has caused the Government to pass the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (the so-called “Traditional Knowledge Bill”) despite vociferous objections from all quarters. It has rushed headlong into terrain where no angel would venture through acute trepidation. It has […]
The Vine Oracle recently chatted to a professional photographer and had occasion to reflect on the treatment meted out to this group by our Copyright law. Apparently freelance photography in South Africa is not the lucrative business it appears to be– quite the contrary. Copyright is supposed to allow creators of original works to make money […]
Surreptitious negotiations, covert drafts, leaked documents and swift announcements at the eleventh-hour – such is the stranger-than-fiction story of the ‘Piracy Treaty’ signed by several world powers in the past week. Amid controversy about the autocratic role of the USA in the drafting process, and the not-so-voluntary gist of the treaty, most of the Allied […]
Amidst the vineyards in Stellenbosch there is an oracle. This oracle, the Vine Oracle, holds forth on matters pertaining to intellectual property (IP). As may be expected, the Oracle communicates with those wishing to consult its wisdom through the grapevine. The rustling of the vine leaves in the summer breezes and the birds and the bees […]
Lucasfilm Limited v Ainsworth [2011] UKSC 39. The facts: Andrew Ainsworth was a prop-designer engaged to produce the iconic Imperial Stormtrooper costumes for the first Star Wars movie in 1977. More recently in 2004, Mr Ainsworth (domiciled in the UK) started making replicas of the Stormtrooper helmet (using his original tools) which he proceeded to sell worldwide […]
“Ex Africa semper aliquid novi”, which can be freely translated from Latin to mean “there is always something new coming out of Africa”, said Pliny, the ancient Roman writer and scholar. Presumably then, as is the case now, the concept of “new” included an expression of sarcasm and deprecation as in “absurd, nonsensical and ridiculous”. […]
