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...
Read MoreLetting the Copyright Cat Out Of The Bag
The almost endless capacity of government to waste valuable resources by embarking on half-baked, and socially costly, ideas never ceases to amaze me. What makes the situation deeply troubling (and, not just a little, ironic) is that they sometimes spend money employing consultants to tell them that they are wasting money on these enterprises. If that were the extent of government’s failure in relation to its policy shortcomings, I could, perhaps, shrug my shoulders and attempt to be philosophical about such matters. However, when government then proceeds to ignore (and, possibly,...
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