Posts Tagged "drafting"

Assignments of IP to non-residents: the amended Exchange Control Regulations

Posted on Jul 3, 2012

Assignments of IP to non-residents: the amended Exchange Control Regulations

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 have principally related to, inter alia, the apparent reversal of the stated policy of relaxing exchange controls or the alleged invalidity of the amendment.  In contrast, the purpose of this note is to briefly...

Read More

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE – Legislation in the NEW tradition

Posted on Sep 18, 2011

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE – Legislation in the NEW tradition

“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”. Well, Pliny has been proved right once again. The Government is on the threshold of passing legislation to grant protection of, and the facility to derive revenue from the use of, so-called “traditional knowledge” (TK) – i.e. folklore,...

Read More