A New Tradition In Legislation
The South African government has created a new tradition in drafting and processing legislation through Parliament. This tradition manifests itself in the drafting of half-baked legislation with little or no regard to the provisions of the Constitution and then fighting a huge public outcry against the legislation on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. In some instances the government then concedes that aspects of the legislation are unconstitutional and it seeks to undertake the revision of that legislation on the floor of Parliament in an attempt to circumvent the claims of...
Read MoreAssignments 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 MoreFrom the horse’s MOUTH? – Government’s views on the National Anthem
Government, and more particularly the Departments of Trade and Industry and Arts and Culture, entered into the current controversy around the ownership of the copyright in the National Anthem by issuing a media release on 18 June 2012. With respect, its contribution to the debate evidences the same lack of knowledge and insight into Copyright Law that is apparent in its ill-conceived and executed Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (the infamous so-called “Traditional Knowledge Bill”) In regard to the ownership and duration of the component parts of the current National Anthem,...
Read MoreAn Anthem To Ignorance – The Case Of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika
Articles dealing with Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and claims by various parties that they hold copyright in it and are entitled to claim, and have claimed, royalties for its use and public performance appeared over the weekend of 17 June 2012 in City Press and Rapport, and possibly other newspapers. These articles claimed that, unlike enterprising third parties, the South African Government has missed out on vast sums of money by way of royalties for use of the song such as at major international sports events. With respect, these articles are well wide of the mark and exhibit a woeful...
Read MoreNEW Traditional Knowledge Bill – Sui Generis Protection for TK
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, the scope of which is yet to be fully realised. This Chair, among many others, has expressed its distress at the current Traditional Knowledge Bill (likely to be the Protection of Traditional Knowledge Act soon) in no uncertain terms. And despite the...
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