We have all been to fun fairs. A fun fair is a facility set up in a vacant space, usually of temporary duration, devoted to providing entertainment to those who frequent it. There are ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, helter skelters, tunnels of horrors, dodgem cars, roller coasters and the like. There are also stalls of one […]
Copyright is a system which grants creatives (i.e. writers, artists, composers, film-makers, record producers and the like) certain exclusive rights to their works which enable those works to be commercially exploited for financial reward. Creatives are thus empowered to make a living out of their works, which in turn is an incentive to make more […]
Prof Sadulla Karjiker and Dr Madelein Kleyn recently submitted the following comments to the DTI on the Draft IP Policy Phase 1 2017. The full text of the IP Chair’s commentary may be downloaded here. Introduction The Department of Trade and Industry published the Draft Intellectual Property Policy of the Republic of South Africa Phase I […]
Professor Owen Dean, first incumbent of the Chair of IP Law, Emeritus Professor and current Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University has again been selected by his peers in legal practice for inclusion in the 8th edition of the list of best lawyers in South Africa in the practice area of Intellectual Property Law. The Best […]
THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED To watch the video podcast of the lecture, click here. The Chair of Intellectual Property Law will present the annual IP Public Lecture on 6 October 2015 with Prof Owen Dean, incumbent of the Chair of IP Law and consultant to Spoor & Fisher. The topic of Prof Dean’s lecture, Copyright […]
Section 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that it is the supreme law of the country and that any law inconsistent with it is invalid. This provision creates the necessity to interpret the Copyright Act in a manner consistent with the Constitution at the risk of the Act, or […]
The incumbent of the Chair of Intellectual Property Law, Prof Owen Dean, has been selected by his peers for inclusion in the latest edition of Best Lawyers in South Africa in the practice area of Intellectual Property Law. Congratulations to Prof Dean. To be selected by one’s peers as a leading practitioner in your field is without doubt an […]
This is an editorial article contributed to the 50th year Commemorative Edition of Responsa Meridiana. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step”. So said Lao-tzu, the Chinese philosopher, who lived in the fifth century BC. How true this can be of a legal career and indeed of any on-going venture. When […]
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 […]
The publication of the South African National Policy on intellectual property (SANIPP) in September 2013 has opened a proverbial can of worms and the Pharmaceutical industry is up in arms. The SANIPP proposes the introduction of stronger IP rights through the introduction of, amongst others, pre-and post-grant opposition proceedings, and makes reference to the introduction […]
