1 December 2010 - ISSUE NO. 1
We at havaplan are pleased to present to you our very first newsletter. Most of our readers would already be familiar with our website: www.havaplan.co.za. If you have not already taken a look please do so in order to familiarise yourself with what it is that we do at havaplan and all the different services we offer.
In a nutshell we help inventors to go from the drawing room to the boardroom. In conjunction to all the services we offer inventors we also assist potential investors in finding that next big profitable product. In this first issue of our newsletter we take a look at the patent process.
Feel free to send your questions and/or general feedback to me at john@havaplan.co.za.
Kind regards
John van der Riet
havaplan's mission
Daniel van Zyl
Is to bring you closer to the world of ideas, copyrights, designs and patents, to simplify the steps needed to achieve this and to do it in the most affordable possible way.
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havaplan where great ideas come alive
Daniel van Zyl
Have you ever come up with an unique new way of doing something? Perhaps you have found an easier or more economic method for completing an existing task, or maybe you have invented a brand new product.
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South Africa: Jury out on intellectual property laws
Sharon Dell
The provincial intellectual property administration recently announced it will begin accepting applications to disburse compensation for overseas legal fees spent in defending intellectual property rights.
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Intellectual Property venture capital fund launched
Unknown Author
VenFin, a South African investment holding company, has launched a new early stage Intellectual Property (IP) venture capital fund to boost innovation in South Africa and take local ideas to the world market.
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Introduction
Spoor & Fisher
Spoor & Fisher is a specialist, full service international IP law firm, with special emphasis on providing services throughout Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.
Spoor & Fisher specialises in all aspects of intellectual property law including patents, trade marks, copyright and designs, related litigation, commercial transactions, due diligence and portfolio management.
Our Trade Mark Department has specialist teams dealing with anti-counterfeiting and ambush marketing; and our Patent Department has specialist teams dealing with biotechnology, chemistry and pharmaceuticals, mining and mechanical inventions, nanotechnology, electronics and business method and computer software related inventions.
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Madrid Trade marks in Africa and Surrounding Islands
Changing Perspectives
Trade mark owners can therefore face ambiguities in the Common law Six. ITMRs appear, from the Madrid system viewpoint, to be available, and may be alleged to conflict with national trade mark applications or registrations. Nevertheless, in the absence of express changes to the domestic laws, the caution expressed above should be noted.
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Intellectual Property Law Developments in Zimbabwe
Two "new" Laws
The Intellectual Property Tribunal Act, 2001 (Chapter 26:08) and the Trade Marks Amendment Act, 2001 ("the 2001 Act") were brought into operation by statutory instruments on 10 September 2010. This follows a period of nine years when that legislation remained on the back-burner.
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Exchange Control, Transfer Pricing and Intellectual Property in Africa
Chris Bull
We write regularly about exchange control regulations impacting transactions and the use of intellectual property in South Africa. Few people are aware that most countries in Africa have exchange control regulations that impact intellectual property owners making use of their intellectual property across Africa.
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Trademarks in Uganda - Service marks Now Registrable
Uganda
We had to contradict reports that service marks had become registrable. The Act, passed by Parliament and announced in the Official Gazette, had not in fact been published. Therefore, its effective date could not be stated and firm advice on its provisions was not available.
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Chris Bull recognized in World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Practitioners
Chris Bull
Intellectual Asset Management, the intellectual property management publication, has published its 2010 league tables of the world's leading 250 patent and technology licensing practitioners. The tables are compiled by conducting interviews with clients and practitioners in 20 major jurisdictions.
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Introduction
Smit & Van Wyk
Our experienced support staff, aided by state-of-the-art software, ensure that we remain efficient and up to date. The foreign department of our firm, in addition to advising on protection, specializes in assisting overseas agents and applicants with filing and prosecution of cases in South Africa and other African countries. We also attend to maintenance of South African cases. Please feel free to contact us should you require any further information or assistance.
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Lesi 2010
Smit & Van Wyk
Opposed to the open source development model there is the "Legally protected" development model, which use legal tools to protect IP for the benefit of the individual or the institution.
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The importance of South Africa patent attorneys
Patent
South Africa patent attorneys assist clients in the application process to obtain invention rights. They help with the completion of forms, description of the invention, signing of documents, setting up the specifications, and also agreements with third parties.
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Defending patent rights
Role of Pretoria patent lawyers in defending patent rights
Since South Africa doesn't have an investigating patent office, the applicants must make sure that their inventions meet the minimum requirements for patents. As such it can happen that the patentability of an invention can be questioned by another party even when the patent has been registered.
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International patent rights applications
Patent
The Smit & Van Wyk Pretoria patent attorneys assist clients in the international patent rights application process. A patent is not valid in another country, unless it is registered there.
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