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 […]
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 […]
INTRODUCTION Intellectual property is commonly regarded as an esoteric branch of the law. It is characterised by being complex and until recently it has been a little understood and somewhat discrete area of the law. Its complexity stems from the fact that it has as its subject matter intangible items such as marks, ideas, concepts, […]
Two related United States Bills were recently the topics of much controversy. Public outcries and widespread online protests were followed by an unprecedented Internet blackout on 18 January 2012. The Internet blackout was supported by the likes of Google, Facebook, Reddit and Wikipedia to name but a few. The blackout was not only supported by the Internet […]
We are all familiar with the old academic adage, “publish or perish”, but when commercialisable research outputs have associated potential intellectual property, any published or presented outputs from the research prior to filing patent applications can result in a minefield for the patent applicant. There are two important intrinsic requirements for obtaining a patent for […]
Can Food Recipes be Patented in South Africa? Cookery has become one of the most popular past times of the last few years. This is illustrated by the enormous popularity of TV shows such as “Masterchef” and “Come Dine with Me”; and cookbooks by celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. This leads […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
