As the pressure on “going green” increases internationally, eyes are turned to the protection of intellectual property and its mechanisms and particularly the question as to whether the World Trade Organization agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) should include special flexibilities for access and dissemination of environmental sound technologies such as they occur […]
Recent media reports raised several questions about the transfer of so-called digital “property” by means of a testamentary bequest. These digital works include e-books, songs, videos, movies, applications and other forms of intellectual expression recorded in digital format and distributed to end-users by means of web traders such as Kalahari, Amazon and Apple iTunes. According […]
All is fair in love and (patent) war, but apparently not when it comes to awarding damages in patent litigation. After nearly 18 months of protracted trench-warfare between Apple and Samsung’s formidable IP legal teams in the Northern District Court of California, Judge Lucy Koh surrendered the matter to a panel of 9 laymen (and […]
We are all familiar with the old academic adage, “publish or perish”, but when commercialisable research outputs have associated potential intellectual property, any published or presented outputs from the research prior to filing patent applications can result in a minefield for the patent applicant. There are two important intrinsic requirements for obtaining a patent for […]
Can Food Recipes be Patented in South Africa? Cookery has become one of the most popular past times of the last few years. This is illustrated by the enormous popularity of TV shows such as “Masterchef” and “Come Dine with Me”; and cookbooks by celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. This leads […]
In recent news, the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) has called on government to revise the Patents Act to reduce the patent protection available to pharmaceutical inventions, which the organisation believes is responsible for the high cost of medicines and a delay in the availability of generic medicines. The organisation refers to the Doha Declaration, which has been […]
