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ENS | 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 ...

ENS | March 2013

Rooibos certainly does make the headlines ...

ENS | March 2013

Technology-rich South African companies and indeed inventors who have taken the brave step of filing foreign patents -will know that there are two ways of getting patent protection in Europe. The first is the national route, in other words filing a patent directly in the country or countries of interest. The second route is that of the European Patent ...

ENS | March 2013

This is the second of three articles that we’ve written on  the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act 51 of 2008 (‘the Act’), which came into effect on 2 August 2010 ...

ENS | March 2013

The BBC recently published a piece called ‘3D Printing Will Be the Next Big Copyright Fight’. It said this:  ‘That moment we’ve been hearing about for years – the one where futuristic-sounding 3D printing becomes ubiquitous – is actually upon us.’  It dealt with a topic that’s also referred to as ‘additive manufacturing’ ...

ENS | March 2013

Just as it seemed that the South African Government’s appetitefor introducing the carbon tax was waning we were informed by the Minister of Finance that the long awaited carbon tax policy paper will be released by the end of March 2013. The carbon tax policy paper is expected to be an update of the carbon tax discussion paper that was published for comment in December 2010 ...

ENS | March 2013

In 2008 the government introduced important intellectual property (IP) legislation.  The Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and DevelopmentAct 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) ...

ENS | March 2013

It’s well known that computer programs enjoy copyright protection - many have  also been patented, but that’s another story and I’m not going to deal with that here. The South African Copyright Act has protected computer programs as a specific category of works since 1992, although prior to that they were protected as ‘literary works’ ...

ENS | March 2013

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 ...

ENS | March 2013

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’ ...

ENS | March 2013

There was an interesting decision in the US recently about the intellectual property (IP) implications of posting a photo on Twitter.   The facts were that a professional photographer by the name of Daniel Morel – a man who has apparently spent over 25 years in Haiti – posted dramatic photos of the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 shortly after the event ...

ENS | March 2013

In December 2012 it was reported that a Brazilian company called Gradiente had secured a trade mark registration in its own country for the mark iPhone for smartphones, having first applied way back in 2000 ...

ENS | February 2013

It’s well known that computer programs enjoy copyright protection - many have  also been patented, but that’s another story and I’m not going to deal with that here. The South African Copyright Act has protected computer programs as a specific category of works since 1992, although prior to that they were protected as ‘literary works’ ...

ENS | November 2012

Supreme Court of Appeal tax cases often adopt a higher-than-normal threshold to support an exemption from, or a relaxation of, taxation. This is normally expressed as a rule that tax concessions are to be strictly construed ...

ENS | November 2012

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 ...

ENS | October 2012

UK Bribery Act: Serious Fraud Office publishes revised policies for facilitation payments, business expenditure and corporate self-reporting An important announcement for multinational organisations with business links in the United Kingdom. The Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom has published revised policies for facilitation payments, business expenditure and corporate self-reporting that take immediate effect ...

ENS | October 2012

Apple’s recent US$ 1 billion damages award against Samsung was world news. In case you missed it, a California court found that Samsung had, in its Galaxy 10.1 smartphone,  infringed various patents belonging to Apple ...

ENS | October 2012

Traditionally investors have looked towards developed countries for investment opportunities and, more often than not, investment decisions have been based on the economic development and growth of such countries.  However, recently investment strategies have shifted towards emerging markets rather than established markets and for this reason an ever increasing number of investors are turning their attention to the African market ...

ENS | October 2012

Newbuilding contracts: When does title in the ship pass from the shipbuilder to the shipowner? Can the parties agree to change when title will pass? Usually shipbuilding contracts are negotiated on standard forms such as the SAJ form produced by the Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan and the AWES form produced by the Association of European Shipbuilders and Shiprepairers ...

ENS | September 2012

Readers familiar with South Africa’s associated ship arrest provisions will recall that in terms of sections 3(6) and (7) of the Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act No. 105 of 1983, a ship, other than the one in respect of which the relevant maritime claim arose, may be arrested to enforce the claim or to obtain security for it ...

ENS | January 2012

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ENS | January 2012

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ENS | January 2012

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