News
Counterfeit goods – using the waist wisely
When 28 000 pairs of counterfeit jeans were seized at Cape Town harbour in 1999, there was one place they were headed: a trench a few kilometres outside the city. With an increased number of counterfeit goods hitting SA shores, particularly from China, brand holders have destroyed thousands of “designer” handbags, shoes and clothing, says law firm Adams & Adams.
The dawn of a new era: Sunrise period for Dot Asia top-level domain names
The Pan-Asiatic and Asian Pacific community has set out to build a stage of their own in what has fast become the economic, social and political theatre of the human race.
What is inside the bottle?
Consumers have the right to know what they swallow, says trade mark attorney Marilyn Krige, partner at Adams and Adams, leading attorneys in intellectual property law. Welcoming the regulations to govern the bottled water industry passed by the Department of Health recently, Krige says any industry that generates some R1,5 billion every year and supplies goods that people consume, should state clearly what it is offering.
Cyber squatters: 0 Brand owners: 1
The very first case in which a cyber squatter was ordered to transfer a .co.za domain name to a South African brand owner has just been handed down. The complainant was Telkom SA Limited. The domain name
Insurance needed against insurance patents
The question of patents for non-technical subject matter is once again hitting the headlines in the USA. Bancorp Services LLC is sueing Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. for infringing a patent for a system that administers and tracks the values of insurance policies in separate accounts (U.S. Patent No. 7,249,037). Bancorp filed suit the same day that the patent issued.