The First Step
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 one looks back over a career, one realises just how important the first step embarking on that career was. Often the significance of the step was not realised at the time and perhaps it was not even recognised as a first step. This only becomes apparent in...
Read MorePromotion and Protection of Investment Bill, 2013 – A Review
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 and Switzerland. The Draft Bill is intended to promote investment by modernising the current investment regime and getting investors, whether foreign or local, to achieve...
Read MorePublic Health Sector and the South African National Policy on Intellectual Property
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 of compulsory licensing provisions in the Patents Act. Whilst the focus is on various industries, the matter of public health and the pharmaceutical industry forms a central theme of the SANIPP. The Innovative...
Read MoreGovernment’s reflections on the world of Intellectual Property
INTRODUCTION Have you ever basked in the warm sunshine of a glorious summer’s day, in daydreaming mode, and allowed your mind simply to wander at random? You start with a thought, you turn it over in your mind, and then a point is reached where you go off at a tangent and muse over some largely unrelated thought, only to be diverted in yet another direction. Eventually you may go the full circle and come back momentarily to the point of departure, before heading off again elsewhere. Daydreaming can be a very pleasant experience and it has the beauty that you do not have to make any...
Read MoreConfessions Of A Privileged Lawyer
I have a confession to make. I plead guilty as charged. I admit that I am a white male establishment lawyer. I practised for 35 years as a partner of a prominent attorneys firm specialising in the field of intellectual property law (“IP”). Thereafter, upon retirement, I became a Professor of IP Law. This makes me a member of that heinous and much vilified group of lawyers who are charged with the crime of wishing to preserve its privileged position and therefore overtly or covertly being against transformation in the legal profession and willing to practice deceit and manipulation in...
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