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ENSafrica | July 2013

Over the last decade six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies have been in sub-Saharan Africa. Many predict that over the next decade Africa is likely to emerge as the fastest growing economic region, assuming this mantel from Asia ...

ENSafrica | July 2013

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 ...

ENSafrica | July 2013

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 ...

ENSafrica | July 2013

Myriad Genetics is known as a leader in the market for diagnostic testing of BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations that have been linked to breast and ovarian cancer.  These same diagnostic tests were recently in the celebrity press, as Angelina Jolie announced she had been tested positive for the mutations, resulting in her electing to have a preventative double mastectomy ...

ENSafrica | July 2013

Court decisions regarding company names are rare. So the recent decision of the Western Cape High Court in the case of Bloomberg’s Posterity Investments (Pty) Ltd v The Registrar of Companies and Bloomberg LLP is worth discussing.  What makes company name cases interesting from an intellectual property (IP) law point of view is that they deal with issues that are very similar to the issues that are dealt with in trade mark infringement and passing-off cases ...

ENSafrica | July 2013

There was a fascinating article about a patent case in CNBC.com recently. Fascinating because it deals with a number of the issues that inventors face when it comes to protecting their inventions, and subsequently enforcing their rights ...

ENSafrica | July 2013

The issue of Adwords has become increasingly important in trade mark law.  When you buy a word from Google as an Adword, this has the effect that whenever anyone enters that word as a search term, your pop-up advert will appear on the screen together with the so-called ‘natural results’.  You can buy generic words as Adwords, but you can also buy words that happen to be trade marks ...

ENSafrica | June 2013

It’s been well reported that the singer Rihanna has sued the UK retail chain Topshop for US$5 million in damages for the unauthorised use of her image on a t-shirt. Rihanna is apparently suing  for passing-off, the argument being that people seeing the t-shirt are likely to assume that she has endorsed the brand.  This may have got you wondering what the law is in South Africa on the issue of unauthorised endorsement ...

ENSafrica | June 2013

The business of environmental law has witnessed a rapid evolution in recent years. This article considers the reasons for and implications of this change for the future trajectory of environmental legal practice ...

ENSafrica | June 2013

It’s not uncommon for a company that owns intellectual property (IP) such as trade marks, patents and copyright to grant another company the right to use that IP. The grant of the right to use IP is referred to as a ‘licence’, the company that grants the right is referred to as the ‘licensor’, and the company that gets the right is referred to as the  ‘licensee’ ...

ENSafrica | June 2013

Domain names and trade marks are inextricably linked. The reason for this is simple – when a company needs to decide on a name at which it wants people to find it on the Internet, it generally opts for one of its own trade marks. As a result, the issues that crop up in trade mark disputes often crop up in domain name disputes too ...

ENSafrica | June 2013

The KZN High Court handed down a really interesting judgment in May 2013 in the case of Distell v KZN Wines & Spirits.  The decision’s  interesting  because  it not only looks at the issues that need to be considered in a trade mark infringement claim, but it also highlights the differences between trade mark infringement and  passing off ...

ENSafrica | June 2013

The Indian Patent Office has proposed a very substantial increase in fees across the board for patent matters. The proposal is for a 100% increase in official fees and it seems likely that this will be implemented before the end of July 2013 ...

ENSafrica | May 2013

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

ENSafrica | May 2013

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 ...

ENSafrica | May 2013

The Libyan Trade Mark Office (“LTMO”) has resumed the process of trade mark searching since April 2013 and will reportedly be accepting new applications for the registration of trade marks in May 2013. This after the LTMO had ceased its operations in January 2011 due to civil unrest in the country. There has, however, been some uncertainty with regard to the LTMO’s acceptance of new trade mark applications ...

ENSafrica | May 2013

The Comoro Islands, situated off the south-east coast of Africa, has ratified the Bangui Agreement, thereby becoming one of the 17 member countries of The African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI). The Bangui Agreement, once consented to, requires that the member states accede to the international treaties and conventions listed in the Agreement ...

ENSafrica | April 2013

EN-GB" lang=EN-GB>It was reported recently that bikers had protested outside Parliament about proposed measures which would have the effect of making life verydifficult for those businesses who are involved in the parallel importation of motorbikes ...

ENSafrica | April 2013

Lindt received a nasty shock just before the Easter weekend. A 12-year legal battle ended with a German court ruling that Lindt could not use the German trade mark registration that it has for its famous Easter bunny to stop a competitor, Riegelen, from selling very similar looking confectionery – Lindt’s registration is for a sitting bunny wrapped in gold foil and featuring a red ribbon and a bell ...

ENSafrica | April 2013

The issue of a plain packaging requirement for tobacco products has been a hot topic since mid- 2012 ...

ENSafrica | April 2013

The decision of the Indian Supreme Court to deny Novartis’s application for patent protection for an improved version of its patented Glivec drug – the culmination of a seven-year battle - has certainly made the headlines. There are a number of reasons for this. First, Glivec is a well-known drug – described by some as a ‘wonder drug’ – that’s used to combat cancer, including  leukaemia and gastro-intestinal cancer ...

ENSafrica | April 2013

Traditional knowledge (TK), for example folklore, is a controversial issue and we’ve written about it before. The government feels that TK should be legally protected, and that this should be achieved through amendments to the intellectual property (IP) statutes. The IP community has no issue with TK being protected, but it’s not very comfortable with this being done through IP legislation ...

ENSafrica | March 2013

The Supreme Court of Appeal recently handed down a rare trade mark judgment.  The protagonists were Adidas and Pepkor, and the main issue was whether Pepkor had infringed certain trade mark registrations belonging to Adidas for its famous three-stripe mark. Adidas was founded by a German called Adi Dassler in 1920 ...

ENSafrica | March 2013

In 2008 the government introduced important intellectual property (IP) legislation.  The Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act 51 of 2008 - which only came into force on 2 August 2010 – governs the ownership and exploitation of IP which flows from publicly financed research and development (R&D) ...

ENSafrica | March 2013

It’s been well reported that Apple has managed to get a US trade mark registration for the layout or interior design (the look, if you like) of the Apple store. What this means is that Apple has exclusive rights to this layout - or indeed any confusingly similar layout - in the area of stores selling electronic goods ...

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