Launch of South African City Domain Name Extensions Three South African city domain names extensions have recently been launched, namely .Joburg, .Durban and .Capetown. It is very important for clients that own co.za domain names, or South African trade marks, to register the matching city domain name extensions. The launch of the city domain name extensions commenced with the Sunrise and land rush phases running concurrently ...
The general requirements for a fair dismissal based on an employer’s operational requirements are found in section 189 of the South African Labour Relations Act, 1995 (“LRA”). However, section 189A provides for specific procedures and remedies, should an employer embark on a large-scale retrenchment. Various consequences flow from the fact that a proposed retrenchment falls within the scope of section 189A ...
The Supreme Court has ruled in a landmark case that the Tax Appeals Tribunal (“TAT”) has original jurisdiction to hear tax disputes, and the High Court only has appellate jurisdiction. Until now, the long-established position was that the High Court and the TAT had concurrent jurisdiction and a litigant had discretion to lodge an application with the TAT or file the dispute in the High Court. In Uganda Revenue Authority v Rabbo Enterprises (U) Ltd and Mt ...
The Constitutional Court has confirmed a decision of the Western Cape High Court that section 44 of the Land Use Planning Ordinance is unconstitutional and invalid, thereby closing off the ability of developers and objectors to appeal to province to overturn and replace unfavourable rezoning, subdivision and departure decisions made by local authorities ...
The recent decision of the Labour Court in National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa obo members and Aveng Trident Steel (A division of Aveng Africa (Pty) Ltd) may provide some cheer to employers facing the challenges of restructuring their workforce in difficult economic times. Since 2014, the employer in this matter has faced strong economic headwinds caused by a downturn in sales and increased costs ...
On the morning of 26 April 2017, the usual rumble of South African Airways (“SAA”) flights taking to the skies was interrupted by a strike by cabin crew employees, organised by their trade union, the South African Cabin Crew Association (“SACCA”). Due to strict civil aviation regulations, the strike resulted in a significant number of flights being cancelled, which, in turn, caused massive inconvenience for passengers ...
The South African Airways (“SAA”) saga continues, with another Labour Court judgment handed down on 8 February 2021. Given the financially parlous position that SAA has been in, even throughout its business rescue proceedings, the Department of Public Enterprises (“DPE”), SAA’s sole shareholder and sole lender, offered SAA employees a salary settlement agreement ...
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 ...
On 22 May 2017, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”) announced that it has made amendments to the JSE Listings Requirements in relation to the adoption of the King IV Report on Corporate Governance and other governance arrangements, including a race diversity policy and the publication of a compliance report pursuant to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (“B-BBEE”) Amendment Act, 2013 ...
Judge Mervyn King’s name is synonymous with corporate governance in South Africa. 1 November 2016 saw the delivery of the fourth version of the famous King report on corporate governance, King IV. So, just what does this latest report mean for IP? Well, there’s apparently no mention of the term “intellectual property” in the report at all, so one might be inclined to answer that it means nothing ...
The worlds of celebrity and IP intersect with surprising frequency. On the one hand, celebrities such as sportsmen and entertainers can use IP to make themselves even wealthier. On the other hand, celebrities, especially those in fields such as music and film, need to be very aware of the IP rights of others. It’s probably also true to say that the fame and wealth that celebrities enjoy can make them targets for some pretty dodgy IP claims ...
When contractors are engaged in construction projects, the employer/clientundertakes to make payments to the contractor in instalments and through the mechanisms provided under their contract. One important mechanism for payment in a construction contract is the contractor’s payment application. Usually, the contract will require that the contractor submitsits payment application every month or after the agreed milestones ...
With an aim of improving the efficiency and competitiveness of Kenya's productive resources, the Privatisation Bill, 2023 aims to replace the current Privatisation Act, 2005. President William Ruto has to privatise six to 10 state corporations to ease the burden on the exchequer and to raise financing for government projects through the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) instead of seeking financing from external markets ...
A 2019 amendment to the Kenyan Companies Act, 2015 introduced a requirement for every company to keep a register of its beneficial owners and submit a copy of this register to the Registrar of Companies (the “Registrar”) within 30 days of preparation. In order to put the above statutory requirements into action, the Attorney-General published the Companies (Beneficial Ownership Information) Regulations, 2020 (the “Regulations”) with effect from 28 February 2020 ...
On 15 March 2020, President Kenyatta gave a speech on how the Kenyan Government intends to manage the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We outline these measures below and also provide some pointers: Travel For 30 days following the announcement, or as varied by the National Emergency Response Committee, travel is suspended for all persons coming into Kenya from any country with reported COVID-19 cases ...
Trade mark law may be contained in statutes, but judges are the ones who interpret the statutes. Judges are also the ones who eventually decide whether one trade mark is confusingly similar to another. It is these factors that make the “Question the Trade Mark Judges” event that recently took place at University College London so fascinating for anyone interested in trade marks ...
On Monday, 11 July 2016, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”) launched a T+3 settlement cycle. This is in line with international best practice and moves away from the previous standard T+5 settlement cycle. The result is that settlement, payment and funds release in respect of securities trades will be done in a total of four days, as opposed to six days (as was previously the case). The move is the culmination of a project initiated by the JSE in 2013 ...
Following an extensive consultation process over a two-year period with relevant stakeholders in the project finance market, the South African Registrar of Securities Services (the “Registrar”) has announced that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”) Debt Listings Requirements (“DLRs”) have been amended with effect from 1 March 2018 to include a new section 10, which will now specifically cater for so-called “project bonds” ...
In the recent judgment of John Mussington & Anor v. Development Control Authority & Others (Antigua and Barbuda) [2024] UKPC 3, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (“JCPC”) found that the appellants had standing to challenge the construction of an airstrip in Bermuda ...
We’ve written about the new Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) on more than one occasion. This refers, of course, to the process whereby companies and organisations can register names – generic words, geographical names, brand names - as top level domain names. So, in the same way that there’s long been .com, .net and .info, you can now have .bank, .google and .capetown. Some 1900 applications have already been filed ...
The magazine World Trademark Review (“WTR”) has published some interesting data about football trade marks. Given that we’re all watching the Euros, this might be a good time to discuss some of the links between trade marks and football. Football clubs have significant trade mark portfolios The club that arguably takes trade marks most seriously is Manchester United, with a trade mark portfolio of 586 marks. Next comes Barcelona with 440 ...
