Introduction The South African Constitutional Court has ruled that the term “property” in the Section 25 of the Constitution covers not only land but also all forms of property including intellectual property (i.e. patents, designs, copyright trade marks and the like). In the event that, as proposed, this section is amended to allow property to […]
On 1 November 2013, the South African Department of Trade and Industry published the draft “Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill” (the “Draft Bill”) for comments. The Draft Bill comes shortly after South Africa decided to unilaterally terminate its bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) with certain European states and specifically Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, Spain […]
Prof Dean was interviewed by Kieno Kammies for 567 Cape Talk radio today (31 May 2013) on World No Tobacco Day. Prof Dean discussed why Government’s proposed ban on tobacco branding (by means of plain packaging) is unconstitutional and amounts to brand genocide. The interview relates to his inaugural address and subsequent publications. This interview […]
Prof Dean was interviewed by Bruce Whitfield on 702 Talk Radio for “The Money Show”. The topic of the interview was Five reasons: Why prohibiting the use of trademarks on tobacco products makes no sense. This interview followed on the topic of Prof Dean’s inaugural address at Stellenbosch University. You can listen to the radio […]
On 21 May 2013, Prof Owen Dean delivered his inaugural address at Stellenbosch University to a select audience of 130 academic peers, University officials and delegates. The topic of Prof Dean’s address was “Deprivation of Trade Marks through State Interference in their Usage”. The full text of Prof Dean’s article is available here. The illustrations […]
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 […]
