Posts Tagged "trade mark"

No Trade Mark Protection for Rubik’s Cube Puzzle

Posted on Dec 9, 2016

No Trade Mark Protection for Rubik’s Cube Puzzle

Discussion: Court of Justice of the European Union; November 10, 2016, Case 30/15, Simba/EUIPO (full text here). ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ In this case the CJEU could further clarify how to apply the rule of European trade mark law providing that trade marks that consist exclusively of a shape or other characteristic of a product that is necessary to obtain a technical result cannot be protected. The decision is interesting for South African trade mark law, since section 10(5) of the Trade Marks Act contains an almost identical rule. Simba, a...

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What’s In A Name

Posted on Aug 30, 2016

What’s In A Name

In his play “Romeo and Juliet” William Shakespeare advanced the proposition through his character Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” What he was saying was that the flower, the rose, had intrinsic value, and, no matter what name it was given, that intrinsic value would be unaffected. The actual name, per se, was thus irrelevant and had little or no value. That proposition may have had some merit in the seventeenth century and in the specific context in which it was advanced, but it does not have universal application at the...

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IP Public Lecture 2016 – Comparative Brand Advertising

Posted on Aug 4, 2016

IP Public Lecture 2016 – Comparative Brand Advertising

THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED Watch the video of the lecture below. The Chair of Intellectual Property Law presents the annual IP Law Public Lecture 2016 with Charles Webster, partner at Spoor & Fisher and frequent contributor to the intellectual property law programmes (LLM, PGDip and Short Course) at Stellenbosch University. Charles’ lecture on Comparative Brand Advertising: the legal do’s and don’ts promises to be of significant value to all trade mark practitioners and brand managers and indeed everyone with an interest in promoting their goods or services in a...

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Open Letter – Plain Packaging Legislation and the Constitution

Posted on Jul 31, 2014

Open Letter – Plain Packaging Legislation and the Constitution

NOTE: The following open letter has been delivered by email to the office of the Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa on 31 July 2014. The contents of this letter is published here in furtherance of the debate on plain packaging legislation and the potential impact on the Constitutional rights of the proprietor. OPEN LETTER 31 July 2014 The Honourable Minister of Health Dr Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi Civitas Building Corner of Thabo Sehume and Struben Streets Private Bag X828 PRETORIA 0001   Dear Dr Motsoaledi, RE: PREVENTION OF USE OF TRADE MARKS ON PACKAGING FOR...

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A Spoon Full of Sugar for Plain Packaging

Posted on Jun 9, 2014

A Spoon Full of Sugar for Plain Packaging

History has taught us that the South African Government, and the Legislature in particular, will not hesitate to make bad law. The volume of carelessly drafted, ill conceived, unconstitutional and overtly political laws that the public has been force-fed in recent years is so great that recourse to the Constitutional Court has become a pedestrian matter. In fact, the alarm felt over perpetual ham-handed law making is only outstripped by Government’s brazen disregard for public cooperation in the democratic process. This even after the public, who are expected to prop up and thereafter obey...

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