Posts Tagged "indigenous knowledge"

The Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Bill, 2016: Has the DST lost its resolve?

Posted on Apr 18, 2016

The Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Bill, 2016: Has the DST lost its resolve?

1 Introduction Despite there being no internationally-accepted agreement on the mechanism for protecting indigenous (or traditional) knowledge, or indigenous (or traditional) cultural expressions, the South African government appears to be determined to introduce some form of protection in this area. To that end, the Department of Science and Technology (“DST”) published the latest draft of the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Bill (the “2016 IKS Bill) on 8 April 2016 (GG 39910).[1] This follows its first draft Bill which was published...

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A Better Second Attempt – Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

Posted on Apr 8, 2015

A Better Second Attempt – Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

On 20 March 2015 the Department of Science and Technology published the first draft of the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Bill, 2014 (the “IKS Bill) and called for comments. The Chair of IP Law has responded to this call and delivered extensive representations on the IKS Bill authored by two of its members, Prof Karjiker and Dr Kleyn. The full text of Prof Sadulla Karjiker’s comments is available here.  The full text of Dr Madelein Kleyn’s comments is available here.  Below follows an overview of the IKS Bill in its...

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Unveiling The Wolf

Posted on Feb 11, 2014

Unveiling The Wolf

The erstwhile Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (“IPLAB”), generally known as the “Traditional Knowledge Bill”, became an Act when it was published in the Government Gazette as having been assented to by President Jacob Zuma on 10 December 2013. This despite vociferous objection from the IP community and other informed sources. (Read more about IPLAB here, here, here and here.) The general consensus was that the Bill was fundamentally flawed and an abominable piece of legislation. Issue was not taken with the notion that traditional knowledge requires improved protection, but...

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