CIPC database update

Afro Leo has learnt from South Africa's Companies and Intellectual Property Commission that they are updating their subscriber database and require your details. If you wish to add your name to the communications received from this Office please declare your interest by sending an email to Shanee at this address for more information.

Whilst browsing through the CIPC's online list of trade mark decisions, an attempt to register the name MRS PLES as a trade mark caught my attention. To the uninitiated MRS PLES is the name of a skull of a national heroine who died many years ago. Her death has always been a mystery but her remains form the basis of a hotly contested debate that humankind evolved from Africa. However, securing her name in history was, it seems, considerably easier than persuading the Registry (correctly me thinks) that she deserved a place on the trade mark register. You see, even 2.05 million years of  'use' may not be enough to secure a secondary meaning - CIPC's standards are high!