Join LES in Cape Town on World IP Day
Links to the speakers:
The impressive Brian Steinhobel through his website Art Steinhobel.
The tax specialist and ENS executive - Mansoor Parker
Sunday, 21 April 2019
Friday, 12 April 2019
The Acute IP Information Gap in South Africa
I have been busy this past month researching and speaking on the important relationship between IP, governance, business finance and accounting in the context of the collapse of Steinhoff involving irregularities in reporting on IP, the dramatic sale of EOH shares following the termination of Microsoft reseller license, the ongoing Makate drama involving the value of a payment for IP successfully taken to market by Vodacom and the reputational elements of allegations of copying by Woolworths. These examples exist against an international backdrop created by the Theranos demise, following revelations that its patented technology did not work.
The research included a collaboration with the CEOs of governance group FluidRock - Ronelle Kleyn and Adv Annamarie Van Der Merwe, time spent with the helpful Institute of Directors in Southern Africa's new CEO - Parmi Natesan, a great read of the new book by Janice Denoncourt "Intellectual Property, Finance & Corporate Governance", an analysis of Brand Finance's Global Intangible Asset Tracker 2018, various discussions with local financial guru and Managing Partner of Cartesian Capital - Anthea Gardner, assistance from Adams & Adams' Mark Beckman and progressive associate Nicholas Rosslee.
In summary, there exists an increasingly important IP information gap in financial disclosures in South Africa that is severely hampering business growth, cultural preservation and opportunity. The IP information gap exists across the business spectrum; large, medium and small businesses are affected. Whilst this is a global challenge, it is particularly acute in South Africa especially in the area of patents. South Africa's patent economy is woeful and stands in stark contrast to its capacity to innovate. It is extremely important to address this gap which starts with a concerted drive on IP education, self audits and the cultivation of an economy that understands the benefit of investing in IP to stimulate growth and further innovation, and also how to draft, use and interrogate an IP narrative in financial accounts effectively.
The slide deck for the seminar co-hosted with FluidRock at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that attracted over 200 people can be found: here, the article published in Business Day: here, the PowerTalk interview with the award winning journalist Iman Rappetti: here, and the talented 702 Morning Show presenter Relebogile Mabotja: here.
This is an ongoing conversation that traverses a number of different disciplines. I am hoping that this is start of more on the subject for a richer understanding of how innovation and stakeholder interest can be made more transparent, open and effective through the use of IP.
Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Uganda’s Movie Collecting Society to be disbanded
Early
in 2018, a group of seventeen artists in Uganda’s Movie Industry, led by Julius
Bwanika and Gerald Sserunjogi, filed a case against UFMI and URSB in the High
Court of Uganda (Bwanika Julius and Ors v. Uganda Registration Services Bureau
& Uganda Federation of Movie Industry, Misc. Cause. No. 083 of 2018). The
case was filed by way of an application for judicial review to compel a
Government Institution to abide by its duties. In a nutshell, the prayers
before Court were for URSB to fulfill its statutory obligations as a
supervisory body over Collecting Societies in Uganda and reign in on UFMI; and
for UFMI to furnish accountability over its activities as well as terminate
illegal issuance of licenses to audio-visual vendors. Opportunities for
resolving the matter through mediation were explored without success and
towards the third quarter of 2018, the parties went back to Court. On the face
of the case, it was clear that UFMI had been flouting some of its obligations
under the law (CNRA). For instance, there was no record of audited accounts; no
records on income and expenditure; no establishment of a Provident and
Benevolent Fund; and, no provision of a security device on all audio-visual
recordings under its membership. Meanwhile, URSB too, had not been cracking the
whip on UFMI.
In
its defense, UFMI argued that it has been going through turbulent times over
the past few years with a lot of infighting, disorganization and limited
operational funds. As such, it is only beginning to stabilize itself in the
murky waters of Uganda’s entertainment industry to take care of all the
concerns of its members. As part of its efforts in re-establishing itself, a
General Assembly of its members was held in January of 2018 and new Leaders
were brought on board to run the Society. The ‘elephant in the room’ over that
matter was that the Seventeen artists that instituted the Court proceedings
considered themselves as members of UFMI but were not recognized as such by the
current UFMI leaders. These Seventeen, therefore did not recognize the General
Assembly of January 2018 and were demanding for a fresh General Assembly in
which they can also come in and contest for leadership of the Society. Not only
that, they also contended that UFMI was wrongly constituting itself as a
Collecting Society for all artists in the Visual entertainment
industry and thus stifling growth and expansion of the creative industry into
other areas. As such, the argument was that Performers – inclusive of standup
comics – and producers, should not all be bundled up together under UFMI.
In
his judgment delivered in mid February 2019, his Lordship Justice Musa Ssekaana pointed out that although it
was clear that UFMI has not been able to comply with the law, blame games do
not help to resolve the current impasse between the parties. The judgment goes
on to add that the “1st Respondent (URSB) should render guidance to
the 2nd Respondent (UFMI) on how to make or amend the Constitution
that would govern and include all the members. The membership should [be][sic] open to any person who is a
stakeholder of the Film and Movie Industry. Once a person is admitted as a
member of the organization, he/she should always remain a member but is
supposed to pay annual subscription fees to activate his or her membership or
be able to take part in the affairs of the organization. . .” The judgment states
further that “it was wrong to merge a federating body with a Collecting Society
because the two institutions do totally different works and as such, cannot be
merged whatsoever. The single role of a Collecting Society is to collect
royalties and distribute them on behalf of their members. The membership for a
Collecting Society of Audio Visual Society [sic]
in this case should be restricted to either producers or performers.”
The
final nail on the UFMI coffin is when the judgment states that: “The 1st
respondent (URSB) should consider separating societies like in some
jurisdictions by having a Society for Authors, performers and Producers because
the nature of interests from the rights holders is normally different and, as
such, requiring the separation of Copyright holders and related rights holders.
This is buttressed by the fact that it is only authors, producers and
performers who are entitled to equitable remuneration as provided under Section
31 of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of 2006. The solution in this
case would be that URSB which is the one that issues Collecting Society
licenses, calls on fresh applicants with knowledge and experience in copyright
management to take on the roles of a Collecting Society for the Film Industry.”
Essentially, Justice Ssekaana was agreeing with the Petitioners that UFMI needs
to be disbanded because in its current format, it cannot play the role of
Collecting Society for different categories of artists within the movie
industry.
The
Court then granted the prayers of the applicants and ordered URSB to guide the
stakeholders in getting a competent and qualified Collecting Society for the
Film Sector in accordance with the law. This ruling on the disbandment of UFMI
thus leaves Uganda with currently only two Collecting Societies – the Uganda
Performing Rights Society for music artists and producers of audio-visual
works, and the Uganda Reproductive Rights Organization for book publishers and
authors. It will be interesting to see how the film industry re-aligns itself to
get back on track in the collective management of royalties. Hopefully, with
the help of URSB, this will be sooner than later because of the promising
nature of the film industry. In the meantime, thanks to this judgment, URSB
itself is now cognizant of the fact that it must up its game as “Big brother”
in the supervision of Collecting Societies in Uganda.
The writer is a legal
scholar and Intellectual Property law practitioner at Sipi Law Associates.
Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Congrats to our own Leo, a new IPKat
It appears to have so far gone unrecognised on this blog, but one of our very own is the first African correspondent over on the insanely busy extraordinary IPKat blog. See the announcement, here. Fittingly, Chijioke Okorie blogs on Afro IP as a lady leo, and is now perhaps the biggest cat on the block in Europe?
Congratulations!!
We look forward to reading more great posts on IPKat, now with more of an African perspective.
Congratulations!!
We look forward to reading more great posts on IPKat, now with more of an African perspective.
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Read all about it! IP Briefs latest
The South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law's 6th issue of its IP Briefs edited and compiled by Dr Madelein Kleyn is out. You can read it all here. In this issue:
Vanessa Ferguson, the SAIIPL president for 2019, outlines the focus of SAIIPL for the current year, having take the reigns from Debbie Marriott who presided over the Institute in 2018. Morne Barradas' piece then assesses how and why patent assets can become valuable to a business.
There is an interesting article from Nordely Wright on the steps that one can take to protect confidential information when dealing with the Competition Commission. This is followed by Amanda Lotheringen's holistic approach to training law enforcement agencies that are so vital to protecting IP rights.
The issue goes abroad and obtains a view from Professor Charles Gielen, former partner of the eminent firm NautaDutilh NV, on the Court of Justice decision of the EU on the technical function exclusion in design law, reviewing the Doceram decision (the first case to deal with it).
Getting local again, Thapelo Montong, the bright patent lawyer at Adams & Adams, contemplates inventorship in the age of artificial intelligence and concludes that under current patent laws, all inventions from superhuman AI machines could well be free and open to the public, at least until antiquated patent laws undergo reform.
There is news too that Wend Wendland, the respected policy strategist and capacity builder, and trainer, has gone online to share his experience and advice in a new blog "Multilateral Matters" which is featured on the IP Unit website of the University of Cape Town.
This post brought to you by Afro Leo.
