The authorities seem to have gone on the offensive on the issue of counterfeits. In the run-up to Christmas, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has called on South Africans not to buy counterfeit goods, even if they are cheaper than the originals (as they invariably are) ...
Between 2007 and 2009 non-profit association Motor Sports Limes (MSL) hosted motocross races on a piece of land that it owned. It claimed to have taken all necessary safety precautions, including marking and securing circuit, for the races and associated events held there. According to MSL, only accredited photographers had to sign a contract with MSL, which included a clause stating that no commercial use of photos taken at the races could be made without MSL's prior consent ...
In a highly-anticipated and extremely significant pair of decisions for businesses and consumers alike, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) ruled on Thursday (October 31, 2013) that the ultimate consumers at the end of a supply chain can effectively leap-frog the supply chain by having direct legal recourse in a class action against a manufacturer who illegally overcharged for the product supplied ...
On October 25, 2013, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China passed an amendment to the P.R.C. Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests (the “Amendment”) ...
SUMMARY: 1. Principles of Belgian Sports justice – 2. The relationship between ordinary justice and Sports justice – 3. The relevant NOC regulations and NOC judicial body – 4. The relevant football regulations and RBFA judicial bodies – 5. Other sports judicial bodies – 6. Clubs’ and players’ rights and obligations – 7. Dispute settlement – 8. ADR and interim relief – Conclusion Abstract:This article aims at providing an overview of sports justice in Belgium ...
With the publication of Law no.74/2013 of 6 September a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was created in Portugal. The law will come into force 90 days after the setting up of the CAS, which will be based at the Portuguese Olympic Committee (POC). In an official communication dated 13 September the POC has already announced that it will respond positively to the mandate conferred on it to set up the CAS ...
The High Court has ruled in favour of pop star Rihanna against high street clothes retailer Topshop, which used an unauthorised image of her (almost identical to one used on her CD) on some of its T-shirts.Customers had believed it was an approved image, so the High Court confirmed Topshop was guilty of passing off ...
The Minister of Finance has issued Regulation No. 37/PMK.04/2013 on Duty-Free Shops on 27 February 2013, which implements Article 48 of Government Regulation No. 32 of 2009 on Bonded Storehouses (Tempat Penimbunan Berikat). The Regulation will effectively be applied 90 days since the issuance date ...
Counterfeiting continues to make the news. Locally, we’ve just had a report of a R10 million bust in the Vereeniging area, during which fake soaps, shampoos, clothing and bags were seized, and seven suspects from Malawi, Mozambique and China (no surprises there), were taken into custody.But we are increasingly getting reports of counterfeiting in product areas that go way beyond the traditional stomping ground of FMCG and luxury goods ...
We recently had a Namibian court decision in a passing off matter, in the case of Mega Power Centre CC t/a Talisman Plant and Tool Hire v Talisman Franchise Operations (Pty) Ltd. The decision is interesting for a number of reasons. First, passing off cases are fairly rare, so any new decision is welcome ...
There were two recent decisions – one in the USA and one in the UK – which dealt with the important but seldom-discussed concept of patent exhaustion. Patent exhaustion in essence means this: the initial authorised sale of a patented item terminates all patent rights to that item, for the reason that the owner of the patent (the patentee) has been rewarded for its ingenuity by that sale ...
A recent posting on a popular intellectual property (IP) blog raised an issue that’s becoming increasingly important in the couch-potato / global- village world we now live in: what, if any, legal protection does a TV format enjoy? In South Africa we often watch local versions of foreign TV programs, be they ‘reality’ shows like Big Brother or Come Dine WithMe, ‘talent’ shows like Idols or Masterchef,or game shows like The Weakest L
There was a bit of a stir in the British press recently, with certain companies complaining that the major UK supermarket chains are now using get-ups for their own-label products that are so similar to the get-ups used by the major brand owners that consumer confusion is inevitable. An industry spokesman said this: ‘Our research shows that consumers are more likely to buy own-label products if they look like brands ...
The production and circulation of counterfeit products have been an economic and social problem for some time. Not only can such products pose a safety risk to consumers who use them, counterfeit products also lead to considerable lost income for legitimate businesses, decrease consumer confidence in the marketplace and are often used to finance organized crime. The retail value of counterfeit goods seized by the RCMP increased from $7.6 million in 2005 to $38 million in 2012 ...
You’ve heard of Victoria’s Secret, right! The US company is, of course, a well-known purveyor of lingerie, a product for which there is clearly a great deal of demand: Victoria’s Secret has some 1 000 stores throughout the world, and its turnover in 2010 was an impressive US$5.5 billion. In 2012 Victoria’s Secret lodged an objection to a domain name registration for www.victoriassecrets.com ...
Did you see the recent Carte Blanche piece called ‘Stripper Scam’ (first shown on 4 February 2013)? The one with‘bare-butt butlers’showing off their assets at ‘bachelorette parties’. The one where presenter Devi Sankaree Govender subjected viewers to a host of dreadful puns: thevillain with‘bare-faced cheek’, finally being ‘caught with his pants down’ ...
1. 1 Please describe the: (a) telecoms; (b) audio-visual media distribution; and (c) internet infrastructure sectors in the Philippines, in particular by reference to each sector’s: (i) importance (e.g. measured by annual revenue); (ii) 3-5 most important companies; (iii) whether they have been liberalised and are open to competition; and (iv) whether they are open to foreign investment ...
A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision addressed a number of thorny issues relevant to commercial real estate disputes including whether a Plaintiff must mitigate its damages where it has made a claim for specific performance of a real estate contract. The decision has wide-ranging implications for commercial real estate developers ...
On December 28, 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) of the People’s Republic of China passed the Resolution of the Standing Committee of the NPC Relating to Strengthening the Protection of Information on the Internet (the “Regulations”). The Regulations contain significant and far-reaching requirements applicable to the collection and processing of electronic personal information via the Internet ...
On 3 December 2012 Guernsey brought into force its new image rights legislation which allows, for the first time anywhere in the world, for such rights to be registered. Gary Assim, Shoosmiths In essence this law has created a new form of intellectual property right for anyone, anywhere in the world, who is famous, or might be in the future, to protect their image by registering it ...
A sports agent by nature is a mediator or ‘go-between’ between the player, and in most instances, a sports club. In general, the agent provides a service, for example, the recruitment of a player, who will enter into a legal relationship with a club. Often a club will pay a sports agent a recruitment fee, which will normally include a signing-on fee that has to be paid over by the sports agent to the player ...
On November 19, 2012, 40 German advertising associations launched the “German Data Protection Council for Online Advertising,” a new initiative to coordinate and enforce self-regulation in the German online behavioral advertising (“OBA”) sector. The initiative is linked to the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (“EDAA”), which manages the self-regulation efforts of the European online advertising industry ...
On 27 July 2012, the Minister of Industry Regulation No. 71/M-IND/PER/7/2012 on Oversight and Control of the Alcoholic Beverages Industry (“Regulation 71”) was issued. Alcohol beverages are now divided into the following 3 categories, namely Class A – 1% to 5% ethyl alcohol; Class B – 5% to 10% ethyl alcohol; and Class C – 20% to 55% ethyl alcohol. Regulation 71 requires all alcoholic beverage industrial entities to obtain a Business License called an IUI ...
The Directorate General of Customs and Excise issued Regulation No. 39/BC/2012 on Determining Special Relationships for Tobacco Products on 12 July 2012 in order to prevent manufacturers spreading their production among their subsidiaries to avoid moving up into a higher-duty paying class. A “special relationship” is established when the result of one of three tests is positive ...
