Legal updates and opinions

by Donvay Wegierski, Director As the world heeds the call to stay at home and flatten the curve our online activity has increased. With it, we [...]

by Donvay Wegierski, Director As trade marks are classified in classes according to the relevant goods and/or services, trade mark applications are often filed with class [...]

by Janine Hollesen, Director Various Discovery companies took Liberty Group Limited ("Liberty") to court over Liberty's use of Discovery's VITALITY and DISCOVERY registered trade marks in [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director Many companies have long engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes involving sustainability, ethics and social impact that aim to give back [...]

by Donvay Wegierski, Director and Janine Hollesen, Director The pandemic has changed the way in which many of us are working which also applies to the [...]

by Janine Hollesen, Director and Donvay Wegierski, Director South Africa is currently in a 21 day national lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19, scheduled to [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director At the time of writing, events worldwide are being cancelled or postponed in an effort to reduce the Covid-19 pandemic.  A new [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Director The High Court in Pretoria has recently ordered the cancellation of numerous trade mark registrations for POLO and logos which include a [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have announced that they are stepping down as "senior royals". This revelation means that the Duke and [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director The initial Brexit date of 29 March 2019 was re-scheduled to 31 October 2019 – deal or no deal. The UK remains [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director The initial Brexit date of 29 March 2019 was re-scheduled to 31 October 2019 – deal or no deal. Our advice to [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director The European Union's Trade Mark office (EUIPO) has this year cancelled McDonald's European Union Trade Mark registrations for BIG MAC and partially [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Director We have written about the risks of not using a trade mark which could lead to the mark being removed from the [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director An adult may possess and use cannabis in private for personal consumption in South Africa. This is according to the South African [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Director, Head of Intellectual Property Practice Not only must a manufacturer of products consider whether the packaging would constitute trade mark or copyright [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has partially cancelled McDonald's EU trade mark registration for MC. Favouring the non-use application brought [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Head of Intellectual Property Practice The answer to this question is yes according to the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in a recent case, where [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Director Recently the reality star, Kim Kardashian, was caught in the cross-hairs of a trade mark storm after choosing the trade mark KIMONO [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director In April 2019 it was announced that certain Amendments to China's Trade Mark law will come into effect on 1 November 2019 [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director The General court of the European Union recently upheld a 2016 ruling by the EU regulator thereby cancelling Adidas EU trade mark [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director Fanatic or not we will all be familiar with the above, each comprising sport in its own shape and form. Interestingly though [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director   NELSON MANDELA INTERNATIONAL DAY 18 July is Nelson Mandela International Day in remembrance and in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director On 17 June 2019, the Canadian Trade Marks Act will be introducing several changes pursuant to it joining the Madrid Protocol, most [...]

The UK Intellectual Propety Office ("UKIPO") has dismissed Home Box Office ("HBO") trade mark opposition filed against the registration of GAME OF VAPES in class 34 [...]

Much has been written of late about the South African Copyright Bill which has attracted a significant amount of criticism from various quarters as being opposed [...]