Legal updates and opinions
Post Author
News / News
Can you copy a product of someone else?
By Janine Hollesen, Director
This question was all over social media and media reports when the owner of Ubuntu Baba used the power of social media to bring to the attention of the South African public, its copying allegations against Woolworths in relation to a baby carrier. This again illustrates the legs which social media has to carry a story of this nature.
The bottom line is that it is not unlawful to copy another person’s product or idea, provided that it is not protected by a form of intellectual property, such as patents, designs, copyright, trade marks or in the get-up of the product.
This issue has been more fully dealt with in our Legal Werks article which can be found here.
Latest News
Parental leave – a pending new entitlement as a minimum term of employment
Currently, South African employment laws provide minimum entitlements to specified leave types for all employees, such as annual leave, sick [...]
Can TWiT.tv prevent Twitter from expanding its business? The dangers of co-existence agreements
VS An interesting spat is on the brew between TWiT.tv and Twitter. Most of us are aware of the Twitter [...]
You, robot
Science fiction – love it or hate it. However, the allegory presented by science fiction directs our thinking in a [...]
The use of alcohol in the workplace
An employer who is faced with an employee who is under the influence of alcohol in the workplace may, in [...]
Application of the participation exemption to the disposal of shares by a controlled foreign company
INTRODUCTION The participation exemption provides a useful and simple tax planning tool which should always be considered when dealing [...]
Shapes can speak a thousand words
The London Taxi Company has had its UK trade mark registration of the shape of its black cab declared invalid [...]
