Determining the similarity between goods in different classes has become a confused area of South African law recently, with a number of courts handing down conflicting decisions. The most recent of these is Chantelle v Designer Group (Pty) Ltd where the North Gauteng High Court overturned the decision of the Registrar of Trade Marks who had allowed registration of the trade mark CHANTELLE in class 3, even though the proprietor of the identical mark in class 25 had objected.

​ With the release of the 2014 ARIPO Annual Report we see the number of Patent and Trademark filings not just increasing, but doubling over the last four years. These figures climb from 424 filings in 2010, to an impressive 835 filings in 2014. This also marks a 20.7% growth from the previous year. According to the International Patent Classification (IPC), the most applications were filed by the US which had 24.6% of the 2014 patent lodgements, China with 13.1% and Germany 6

In late August 2015 the Western Cape High Court handed down a judgment which neatly sets out the principles of passing off and discusses some ancillary issues. This is a good judgment which adequately discusses the issues surrounding passing off. The court also did a commendable job when addressing the secondary issues and this judgment can surely be consulted when referencing to passing off cases in the future. Global Vitality Inc (the Applicant) is an American manufacturer,

The Communication Authority along with The Kenya Copyright Board recently made public a proposal to hold Internet Service Providers ISP’s responsible for blocking “unlawful” content on/from websites hosted in Kenya. The proposed regulations are said to lay out stringent penalties for ISP’s who do not comply and once approved will be inserted as an amendment to the Copyright Act by the end of 2015. The media report in The Daily Nation cites the motivation for these proposals b

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Retail Limited (which is Nigeria’s oil corporation with powers and operational interests in refining petrochemicals products) has instituted legal proceedings against the Natural Network Petroleum and Gas (NNPG) Company Limited over alleged infringement of its trade mark at the Federal High Court Abuja. The court requested that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Registrar of Trade Marks, Patent and Designs be joined a

​ After more than 4 years of civil war and accompanying legal uncertainty, we are happy to report that the Libyan Trademarks Office (TMO) has started issuing registration certificates again. The instability began when the first civil war broke out in February 2011, resulting in the closure of the TMO. In 2012, the TMO started issuing registration certificates which were initially kept on file, but which were distributed to applicants from August 2012. In early 2013, it appear

On 6 July 2015, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) adopted a new Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants at a diplomatic conference held in Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania. The Protocol is aimed at modernising African agricultural practices, yet some argue that it comes at the expense of traditional farming practices that include saving, re-using, sharing and selling seed. The Arusha Protocol is aimed at providing protection

A wave of piracy in Zimbabwe, buoyed by the economic collapse in the country, has seen popular musicians resorting to selling their works on the streets. Estimates as to the exact scale of piracy in Zimbabwe are unclear but it is undoubtedly depriving content creators of substantial revenue. According to Business Software Alliance, Zimbabwe’s rates of piracy are at least 10% higher than the average in other African countries. The Zimbabwe Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act

The draft of the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill has been published. Currently there is very little legislation dealing with cybercrime in South Africa. The Bill aims to address the situation by implementing measures to combat cybercrime. The Bill creates offences and imposes penalties for certain cybercrime offences. The Bill further regulates the jurisdiction of the courts and well as the powers to investigate cybercrimes and the aspects surrounding evidence pertaining

The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), in an effort to sanitize the Nigerian market of piracy activities, recently carried out anti-piracy raids in major markets in Lagos suspected to be piracy activity points and seized 50,000 copies of pirated works worth an estimated market value of two million Naira (N2,000,000). The anti-piracy raids were carried out between 25 August and 30 September 2015 at the instance of complaints brought to the Commission by Yoruba Movie Marketer