Posts Tagged "patent"

Clean Power Technology Protection

Posted on Jun 24, 2013

Clean Power Technology Protection

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 in the fields of health or nutrition and how can this be of benefit? It is argued that the IP system has been associated with some limitations with regards access or spread of technologies and while...

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IP Heirlooms – Testamentary Assignment of Digital Contents

Posted on Sep 25, 2012

IP Heirlooms – Testamentary Assignment of Digital Contents

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 to these reports, individuals who sought to provide for the transfer of their personal collections of digital works after their death found that the law does not specifically provide for such transfer of...

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Patently Wrong – The jury’s verdict in Apple v Samsung

Posted on Sep 17, 2012

Patently Wrong – The jury’s verdict in Apple v Samsung

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 women). A mere 22 hours later the (well rested and fed) jury had finished studying Judge Koh’s 109 page instructions and 26 pages of the parties’ juror forms, answered all 56 factual and legal questions and ticked all of the 250+ boxes of the baffling verdict...

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To publish or not to publish, that is the question

Posted on Mar 29, 2012

To publish or not to publish, that is the question

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 an invention in most countries in the world, the first is that the invention must be new and the second is that the invention must be inventive or non-obvious.  In order to be new, an invention cannot have been made ...

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Recipe Patents

Posted on Mar 29, 2012

Recipe Patents

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 to an interesting question – Can food recipes be patented in South Africa? To answer this it is necessary, as with any invention, to look into the statutory requirements for patentability. No matter how delicious the dish, the recipe must still meet the basic conditions...

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