Protecting your intellectual property, especially copyright and confidentiality issues. You can read our advice, or about the products or services we offer related to this focus area below:
You decide that as part of your new product, you want to run a promotional competition to promote it. You spend time trying to find the perfect prize and once you find one, you realise that you aren't sure if [...]
How can you protect fictional characters from exploitation? Considering the potential brand value that fictional characters have for creators in video games and books, the following questions spring to mind: Does copyright provide an appropriate level of protection? What else [...]
The Copyright Amendment Bill is a hotly debated document and the most recent edition was released in 2017. It’s rather confusing, and there are many different interpretations of the changes that are in it. We have created a Copyright Amendment [...]
Last week Parliament heard the Copyright Amendment Bill submissions by members of the public. We were in Parliament to hear the Copyright Amendment Bill submissions and get all the latest insight from various stakeholders on the Bill. The sessions were [...]
The Draft Intellectual Property Policy Phase 1 (2017) (Draft IP Policy) for South Africa was released on 9 August 2017. The release of the Draft IP Policy is one of the key stages of reform that is taking place in [...]
Software patents are a critical issue in technology and economic development because many global economies are driven by computer technology. Software developers are naturally keen to protect and monetize their inventions by using software patents. But what are software patents? [...]
You are in discussions with a potential investor, a potential joint venture partner, a licensee or a distributor of your intellectual property. Protecting your intellectual property is critical. Can you trust them? Will they walk away with your intellectual property? [...]
Do you have a robust intellectual property strategy? And why does it matter? Intellectual property is one of the key assets of an organisation. It is becoming of ever-increasing importance in this digital world where ideas and information can be [...]
What does "Please Call Me" mean for your organisation? The "Please Call Me" case (Makate v Vodacom) brought the issue of who owns employee-created intellectual property sharply to the fore. This ‘David v Goliath’ saga, which lead to a legal battle all [...]
The ‘David v Goliath’ saga of Makate v Vodacom, which proceeded all the way up to the Constitutional Court, highlighted the risks organisations face if they fail to properly address the ownership and commercialisation of potentially lucrative ideas created by their employees. Key take-away’s of Makate [...]
When it comes to legal issues writers face, the challenges may differ according to the category each writer falls into. Academic writers, for example, may face completely different legal issues compared to novelists and poets. The one thing that is certain [...]
The Copyright Amendment Bill amends the Copyright Act, No 98 of 1978, and the Performers Protection Act, No 11 of 1967. The Bill modernises both Acts, but it also creates many problems, which makes it unlikely that the Bill will [...]
