A limited victory: IP and exchange control
In the culmination of a widely followed case, on 1 October 2014 the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to repay Mark Shuttleworth over R250 million plus interest. The money had been levied against Shuttleworth when he applied to transfer his assets out of the country in 2009. He had emigrated from South Africa several years before that, and the prevailing practice at the time was to levy an exit penalty of 10% on any person who emigrated and wished to transfer more than R750,000 from South Africa. This exit levy was dropped in 2010, but this was too late for...
Read MoreThe 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 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...
Read MoreInsider Views: The IP Law short course a resounding success
There is a saying that goes: “The past is history, the future hasn’t come yet so live for the moment.” After this week I totally disagree. IP is the future. This pioneering short course was a combined effort of The Anton Mostert Chair of Intellectual Property at Stellenbosch University and the Law@Work Professional Development Project of the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town. The joint presentation was at the outset a challenge – several contracts between the two universities were required for the course to be presented. The accreditation process for the course was not...
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