Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Darren Olivier

Post Script

Following the post on Botswana immediately below and others on African countries seeking a stronger IP rights culture, Afro-IP weblog notes that it must be difficult to reconcile the balance between a robust IP...

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Darren Olivier

Second Botswanan Minister To Urge IP Focus

Cabinet minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi has urged universities, research and technology transfer institutions to focus on using their intellectual property in a meaningful way to help the economy. Speaking at a workshop held with WIPO...

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Tuesday, 29 January 2008

Jeremy

Morocco's Nemotek first licensee for OptiML tech

Morocco-based start-up Nemotek has become the first licensee of Tessera Technologies' OptiML Wafer-Level Camera (WLC) chip-packaging technology, which makes it possible to manufacture thousands of lenses simultaneously on a semiconductor wafer, reports EE Times. Nemotek...

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Monday, 28 January 2008

Darren Olivier

Kenya Appeal Court Denies Single Colour Protection

Afro IP has come across a recent trade mark decision of Kenya's Court of Appeal (British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd ("BAT") v Cut Tobacco Kenya Ltd ("CUTT") ) in which BAT had unsuccessfully attempted...

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Jeremy

BSA-IDC report pinpoints benefits predicted from reducing SA software piracy

According to an article in Moneyweb, the reduction of software piracy over the next four years in South Africa could create a stronger local information technology (IT) sector, generate new high paying jobs and contribute...

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Jeremy

Achebe comments on IP culture in Nigeria

Vanguard carries an interview with Chidi Chike Achebe, the second son of Chinua and Christie Achebe. Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart was published 50 years ago this year. When asked, "What do you perceive...

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Sunday, 27 January 2008

Jeremy

Japan to fund "better use" of African IP

Japan News Review, citing "unnamed government sources" today, reports that Japan plans to create a 110 million yen fund later this year to further its efforts to help African countries protect and make better use of intellectual property. The fund will be one of Japan’s top agenda items at this summer’s G8 summit which is to be held in Toyako, Hokkaido. When the plan is presented on Tuesday, its details will indicate how much of the fund is to be spent on IP admininstration and infrastructure, how much on education to raise IP consciousness and how much on helping develop R&D.
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Saturday, 26 January 2008

Jeremy

Microsoft "outs" SA infringers

The Times reports that Microsoft has publicly exposed eight businesses which it sued for selling illegal software since it started its Genuine Software campaign. Civil settlements totalling over R200,000 have been made with the eight, which are still in business but being monitored. The eight are Millennium Computers (Harrismith), Bitel Computers (Port Shepstone), Computer Concepts (Newcastle), Dautech Computers (Gauteng), Richards Bay Computers, Universal Computers and Ngatia Trading (all from Richards Bay) and A&M Hyperworld (Mpumalanga). All were caught following the making of trap purchases by private investigators and police.
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Friday, 25 January 2008

Jeremy

Poison toothpaste alert in Botswana

Botswana is the latest country to warn consumers against buying Chinese manufactured toothpaste that contains Diethylene Glycol (DEG), a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze and as a solvent, according to AllAfrica. DEG is not recommended...

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Thursday, 24 January 2008

Darren Olivier

Zimbabwe re-launches Anti-Piracy Organisation

APOZ or the Anti-Piracy Organisation of Zimbabwe was launched this month as copyright and collective management inspectorate. According to the allAfrica report APOZ is the only organisation that fights piracy in Zimbabwe and has...

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Jeremy

Kinky sold to Indian consumer goods firm

Indian company Godrej Consumer Products has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Kinky hair business in South Africa. Kinky is one of the leading brands in...

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Jeremy

Tanzania increases powers to seize counterfeits

AllAfrica reports that a new law giving powers to Tanzania's Fair Competition Commission (FCC) to take action against dealers of counterfeit goods will come into force this year. The FCC is currently only allowed to...

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Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Jeremy

Cup of Nations: can YOU watch it?

Africa's Cup of Nations football tournament is now underway, and the broadcasting rights are coming under scrutiny. According to Follow the Media, " ... TV broadcast rights fees were too stiff for some African broadcasters,...

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Tuesday, 22 January 2008

Darren Olivier

Botswana speaks out

Serwalo Tumelo, Botswana’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, has called on the United Nations Development Program to take a more forceful role on free trade in Africa. According to...

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Darren Olivier

SA Building Industry Going Green

According to Engineering News the SA property market is preparing to enter the global 'green-building' boom, and the recently established Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) has set to work on developing a ratings...

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Jeremy

Libya, nuclear power and tech transfer

In an interview with Der Spiegel, reported by Petroleum World yesterday, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri fielded questions on a wide range of energy-related issues. At one point the dialogue turned to nuclear energy and...

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Darren Olivier

Calling all members of the SAIIPL

The AFRO-IP team has become aware that members of SAIIPL are invited to a Special Meeting held jointly by the AIPPI (South African Group) and the SAIIPL on Friday 1 February 2008. The Special...

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Monday, 21 January 2008

Darren Olivier

S11D (R&D tax incentive) Guideline

Mike Du Toit, current president of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law, has kindly drawn AFRO-IP’s attention to a 34 page comprehensive guide to the S11D tax incentive, published by Sibanda and Zantwijk...

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Jeremy

Recent articles of interest

In the current issue of Trademark World (December 2007/January 2008), Wim Alberts (Bowman Gilfillan John & Kernick) writes on "Staving off expungement: the 'engineered' use of a trademark in South African, UK and EC Law"....

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Jeremy

Rezidor extends hotel franchise to Senegal

The Belgium-based Rezidor Hotel Group is to extend its franchise to three further properties under its mid-market Park Inn brand. Two will be in Europe, but the third will be in Dakar, Senegal, where the...

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Sunday, 20 January 2008

Jeremy

Renault-Nissan set to consolidate brand domination in Morocco

Renault-Nissan has signed an agreement with the Moroccan government to invest euro 600 million in building a manufacturing complex near Tangiers, on which work will commence next month. The site will initially produce 200,000 vehicles...

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Jeremy

Musa research project now complete

Africa Science News reports that scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have now concluded a five-year project to improve plant breeding techniques and develop new cultivars in order to increase yields of...

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Friday, 18 January 2008

Jeremy

Terra 2008 to focus on earth-building technologies

Terra 2008, the 10th international conference on earth-building, is to be held from 1 to 5 February 2008 in Bamako, Mali (click here for conference details). The thrust of the event is that, while nearly...

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Jeremy

Egyptian clinical study "blocked by the NYSDOH"

According to the IPD Group a landmark study aimed at Egypt's hepatitis C pandemic, involving collaboration of the National Research Centre in Cairo and Medizone International, a US public company engaged in developing complementary therapies for hepatitis C, has been blocked by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). Said a spokesman for Medizone: "the motives are clear. The NYSDOH has a history of strongly suppressing complementary therapies. Also, special interests are involved, potent economic forces fighting to keep the status quo on established pharmaceutical pipelines". The pandemic is believed to be caused, at least in part, by the failure of an earlier vaccination programme.
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Thursday, 17 January 2008

Darren Olivier

Science with Africa Conference in Ethopia

The ISC-Intelligence in Science and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) are organising a Science with Africa Conference in Addis Abba from 3-7 March. According to the conference website Science with Africa will focus...

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Jeremy

Forthcoming pharma regulatory conference

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Drug Information Association and European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations are co-hosting the first African Regulatory Conference: A Forum for Regulatory Authorities and the Pharmaceutical Industry on...

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Jeremy

As elections loom, BOMU reviews developments

The Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) is expected to elect a new executive committee next month, reports AllAfrica. Although the BOMU executive has come under heavy criticism, secretary general Nkgopoleng Tlhomelang is upbeat: "We are proud...

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Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Darren Olivier

Feedback Update

By sharing this blog with friends and colleagues and following Jeremy's post on the IPKAT here, we have received a number of comments that we wanted to share with you:It looks very promising. I mentioned...

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Darren Olivier

Funding Legislation Under Consideration

Biotechnology firms in South Africa have urged MPs to reconsider clauses in the draft Technology Innovation Agency Bill that give the Agency rights to board representation and equity stakes in the firms it invests in,...

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Jeremy

Microsoft calls for more consumer education, government support

Abednego Hlatshwayo (Microsoft anti-piracy manager for East and Southern Africa) is quoted in Business Daily as saying that devices such as CD and DVD-writers, as well as internet tools, are making it easy for pirates...

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Tuesday, 15 January 2008

Darren Olivier

De Beers in Price Fixing Settlement

According to iafrica.com , South African headquartered world diamond giant De Beers is to pay $295m in a class action settlement after it was accused of unlawfully monopolising the supply of diamonds, conspiring to fix...

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Jeremy

Dispute over "Adventist" in Rwanda

The Universite Adventiste d'Afrique Centrale (UAAC) has petitioned Rwanda's National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) to stop the Unilak campus carrying the word 'Adventist' in its name. UAAC says the name 'Adventist' was, among other things, a registered trade mark for institutions solely owned and run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, adding: "Using the word 'Adventist', Unilak creates confusion to the public and the authorities who often confound the University with Adventist University of Central Africa". Unilak denies liability.
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Jeremy

DTCA reminds its staff of tech transfer imperative

According to The Tide Online, staff of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) have been reminded of the need for effective promotion and actualisation of Nigeria's foreign policy. At a workshop organised by...

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Monday, 14 January 2008

Jeremy

Gazprom eyes Nigerian gas, offers tech transfer

Gazprom, the massive Russian energy company, is reportedly in talks with Nigerian energy officials with a view to developing the country's vast gas reserves under a possible US$2.5 billion deal, prompting fears in Europe and...

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Sunday, 13 January 2008

Jeremy

WCO warns that Africa, not China, is its main threat

The World Customs Organisation now regards African countries as the main concern in Europe's fight against unsafe and counterfeit goods, which are said to be worth over $200 billion in trade every year, according to...

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Jeremy

Efavirenz too expensive in South Africa, claims report

A report in Health 24 says that, according to the experts, the Department of Health in South Africa is paying much more than it needs to for key HIV drug Efavirenz. On one estimate the...

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Saturday, 12 January 2008

Jeremy

Uganda wine market grows

An article in AllAfrica.com on the growth of a sophisticated wine-drinking culture in Uganda lists the names of various wine products that are now available. One interviewee comments: "Thanks to friendly trade policies in place,...

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Friday, 11 January 2008

Jeremy

ABB to upgrade local engineering skills as well as power station

According to The Times (South Africa), Swiss power-technology company ABB has been given a contract worth $90-million (R630-million) to upgrade control systems and instrumentation at the 20-year-old Matla power station in Mpumalanga. ABB is to...

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Jeremy

Working with FAN "commendable"

Writing in Global Politician, Ugo Harris Ukandu ("The Way Forward For Nigerian Film Industry") points out that, according to Filmmakers of Nigeria (FAN), international piracy of Nigerian movies and films in the Americas, Canada, Europe and other African countries is costing Nigeria an estimated US$50 million annually. He commends the film industry for its plan to work with Filmmakers of Nigeria USA (FAN USA), to organizes their marketing and distribution strategy internationally in USA and Europe to cut out piracy and to repatriate their money and efforts back in the Nigerian economy, adding:
"This is commendable but more is needed to be done. Examples are the dubious contracts each individual film makers, marketers, actors, actress and producers are undertaking individually with dubious individuals both internationally and within Nigeria for their personal marketing and distribution rights, and these contracts are not abiding or enforceable in the international copyright laws or anywhere else in the world. Such hasty contract with no backbone and as such these people are given blank checks to produce and distribute Nigeria arts and Films internationally with no money coming to them or into Nigeria, and it is a win win situation for the piraters and copyright violators . Nigeria and the film industry are shortchanged and violated big time in these hasty deals".
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Thursday, 10 January 2008

Jeremy

Angola's IP Office undergoes reorganisation

The Angolan IP Office in the country's capital Luanda is undergoing a process of reorganisation. Accordingly the Office will, for the time being, be open to the public only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays....

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Wednesday, 9 January 2008

Jeremy

Roche provides know-how for making generic Saquinavir

CNN reports that Swiss-based drug company Roche Holding AG is entering into four new cost-free technology transfers with local manufacturers in Africa, helping them make generic HIV medicine. The drugs, based upon Saquinavir (Roche's second-line...

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Jeremy

Eurosport signs Africa football deal with Puma

Sportswear brand Puma has signed a deal with the Eurosport sport network to sponsor its live football coverage of the forthcoming African Cup of Nations. The sportswear brand is using the deal to launch its...

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Tuesday, 8 January 2008

Jeremy

The "browning" of Africa--a new trend in tech transfer?

Writing in Intellibriefs, G Pascal Zachary discusses what he calls the 'Browning’ of African technology. This is his term for the sudden influx of Chinese and Indian technologies into Africa, which has long been the domain of “white” Americans and Europeans who want to apply their saving hand to African problems. The “browning” of technology in Africa is only in its infancy, he explains, but the shift is likely to accelerate. Chinese and Indian engineers hail from places that have much more in common with Africa than Silicon Valley or Cambridge. Africa also offers a testing ground for Asian-designed technologies that are not yet ready for US or European markets. While technology transfer from China and India could be a smokescreen for a new “brown imperialism” aimed at exploiting African oil, food, and minerals, Africans genuinely need foreign technology and the Chinese, in particular, are pushing hard to fill the gap.
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Jeremy

Trade mark tax break in South Africa

According to an article by Sanchia Temkin, on AllAfrica.com, taxpayers in South Africa may now claim deductions for registration costs relating to trade marks in the light of a recent amendment to the Income Tax...

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Monday, 7 January 2008

Jeremy

Libya, US, sign technology cooperation pact

Last week the United States and Libya signed a bilateral Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. The US-Libya Agreement is the first official bilateral agreement signed between the two countries since re-establishment of relations in 2004....

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Jeremy

Ethiopia confirms rights in Harar, Sidamo coffee names

News agency Reuters has reported that Ethiopia has obtained trade mark rights for its specialty Harar and Sidamo coffee names. During 2007 the African coffee-producing country had a lengthy dispute with Starbucks Corp over the...

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Sunday, 6 January 2008

Jeremy

OLPC programme faces patent infringement threat

According to an article in InformationWeek, Lagos Analysis Corp. is threatening patent infringement proceedings against the One Laptop Per Child programme, maintaining that the OLPC programme uses an XO laptop that falls within the scope...

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Saturday, 5 January 2008

roshana

South Africa - limited protection for FIFA

While the DTI didn't give FIFA a red card, it wasn't Father Christmas either when dealing with their request in terms of section 15 of the South African Merchandise Marks Act 1941. Section 15 provides...

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Friday, 4 January 2008

Jeremy

New record seizure at Tambo

IOL reports , via The Star, 3 January 2008, that police have intercepted what is believed to be the largest shipment of fake DVDs in South Africa's history, estimated to be worth more than R200-million...

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