Monday morsels
Two Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgments were handed down in South Africa last week. The High Court decisions in the Turbek KG matter (see Afro-IP report here) and Century City (see Afro-IP report here)...
Friday, 27 November 2009
Registry week - global trademark filing stats
The US Patent and Trade Mark Office recently released its 2009/2010 Annual Report which showed a 13% fall in annual trade mark filings from a record high in 2008/2009. The figures show a decline to...
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Registries in the news..again
South Africa - The Department of Trade and Industry is proceeding with plans to convert the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) into a self- standing commission. The department hopes the creation of...
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Registries in the news..for different reasons
WIPO has launched an enhanced online patent information service that will improve public access to information on patents filed and granted around the world. WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE®, which currently hosts data on more than 1.6 million...
Monday, 23 November 2009
Afro-IP has not been hot on the heels of the developments surrounding the not-so-secret Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement which, at this stage, has been "secretly" negotiated with only one African country, Morocco. However, since...
Friday, 20 November 2009
Members of Nigeria’s Musical Copyright Society visit South Africa for Training
In a beautiful example of cross-continent collaboration, CISAC (Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers), SAMRO (South African Music Rights Organisation) and SARRAL (South African Recording Rights Association Limited) have sponsored two members of Musical...
Thursday, 19 November 2009
LOTTO case: a recent article
The December 2009/January 2010 issue of the World Trademark Review, published six times a year by Globe Business Publishing's IP Media Group, carries an article by Owen Dean and Lauren Frizelle (both of Spoor &...
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Libya amends trade mark rules: how will this affect licensing practice?
The INTA Bulletin, volume 64, no. 21, brings news of an amendment to Libya's trade mark law. Decision No. 316, which came into force on 5 July, has made a number of changes to that...
Roses, Cheetahs and Gandalf – The SCA
On Monday Afro Leo had occasion to visit the Supreme Court of Appeal which is situated in a grand but compact building in Bloemfontein. Readers of this blog have asked for a piece on the...
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
A sweet victory
Ferrero four years laterFour years ago, Ferrero successfully defended its confectionery marks against a FIFA attack. Sadly, the judgment came too late for them to market their confectionery during the 2006 FIFA Soccer World Cup....
Monday, 16 November 2009
SAGA is teed off
On Monday, the Western Cape High Court handed down a judgment on the interface between company names and trade marks (they are making rather a habit of it – one of the only two reported...
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Rolex Gang gate crashes IP Crammer seminar
Yesterday Afro Leo (in his alter ego) was fortunate enough to speak and contribute at Bowman Gilfillan's IP Crammer seminar which had around 70 people in attendance. There is much to be said about a...
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Software Raid in Lagos Confiscates High Quality Copies
Nigeria’s Vanguard reports on a recent counterfeit software raid in Lagos. The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) confiscated a number of copies of various Microsoft products. Unlike the usual pieces of counterfeit software collected in raids...
Mr Video - the stills
IP extraordinaire Dr Wim Alberts has kindly provided this explanation of the Mr Video decision after Afro-Ip had reported that its logic had had many an IP practitioner in a twist:The Supreme Court of...
Friday, 6 November 2009
SAMRO v Gilfillan and the "tyranny of litigation"
Literally hot off the press, here's the judgment of the High Court of South Africa (North Gauteng Provincial Division) of 4 November in South African Music Rights Organisation Ltd (SAMRO) v Graeme Gilfillan, the Brenda Fassie case (see earlier posts here, here and here on Afro-IP for some SAMRO background and history). In short, this was an attempt by SAMRO to obtain a full or interim interdict to stop its outspoken critic Graeme Gilfillan "publishing any defamatory and/or derogatory statements ... and/or from publishing injurious falsehoods" about it pending the arbitration of David Feldman N.O. v SAMRO, a now well-publicised dispute relating to Feldman's attempts to secure accounts in relation to copyright royalties owed to Brenda Fassie's estate.
Dismissing the application for an interdict, the court reviewed the evidence, the submissions and the conduct of the dispute to date, and concluded:
"The applicant has failed to establish a prima facie right to interdict the respondent from publishing a statement of which the contents are unknown in the future".Then, citing with approval the words of Mhlantla AJA in National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals v Openshaw 2008 (5) SA 399 (SCA), the court added:
"There is such a thing as the tyranny of litigation, and a Court of law should not allow a party to drag out proceedings unduly".You can read or download pages 1 to 10 of the judgment of Pretorius J here and pages 11 to 19 here. Afro Leo looks forward to hearing more news about this action.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Copyright Society stopped from collecting ring tone royalties
According to Business Daily here, the High Court has ordered the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) to stop collecting ring tone royalties from Cellulant Kenya Ltd pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal.Justice...
Monday, 2 November 2009
African nations score poorly for entrepreneurship, innovation in latest Legatum index
PR Newswire reports on the third edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index, which ranks 104 countries (covering 90% of the world's population) by criteria of prosperity that combine economic growth together with measures of happiness...
