Legal updates and opinions

On 17 June 2019 the Canadian Trade Marks Act will be introducing several changes pursuant to it joining the Madrid Protocol. The most significant changes are [...]

A South African artist, Daniel Baron has accused David Guetta of copying his 2016 song, "Children of the Sun". As far as can be seen from [...]

Anyone who has a commercial presence in the USA or intends entering the US market will know that the United States Trade Mark Office ("USPTO") is [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Head of Intellectual Property Practice It is important that a trade mark is used as non-use could lead to the cancellation of the [...]

2019 certainly started with a bang for Woolworths when social media carried the story of its sale of a baby carrier, which Woolworths had stated was [...]

The following considerations and time frames concerning trade marks in the UK are expected to apply to European Trade Marks (“EUTM’s”)*: The UK and EU reach [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director Depending on the circumstances, the following considerations and time frames concerning trade marks in the UK are expected to apply to European [...]

By Janine Hollesen, Director Truworths brought a cancellation application against Primark Holdings’ registration for PRIMARK on the basis that the mark had not been used. A [...]

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 [...]

By Donvay Wegierski, Director In August 2018, tennis champion Roger Federer terminated the sponsorship agreement with Nike having entered a US$300 million contract with Japanese casual [...]

Brand owners take note, the movement to legalise the possession and consumption of cannabis is real. With the growing global trend to recognise cannabis as legal, [...]

On 3 October 2018, the Judge President of the Gauteng division of the High Court issued a Commercial Court Practice Directive, which will apply to the [...]

In our September 2017 edition of Legal Werks, the top ten reasons to register trade marks were identified notably the significant value and extensive protection trade [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors In Sony Corporation vs Sony Holdings Limited the Kenyan High court dismissed the Japanese corporate's trade mark opposition to [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors A further reason to register trade marks is that they can be relied upon in company name objections. The [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors On 31 August 2018, China introduced legislation making online operations accountable. Online service providers who fail to monitor their [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors The registration of trade marks has numerous advantages one of which is that as registered trade marks are assets [...]

Multinationals with South African group companies are required to adhere to South Africa's transfer pricing legislation as found in section 31 of the Income Tax Act, [...]

Roger Federer, holder of eight Wimbledon men's singles titles and currently ranked no. 2 in the world in men's tennis singles, is one of the greatest [...]

  As the largest single sporting event, the FIFA World Cup is watched across the globe which has led to FIFA's brands, including the FIFA World [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors On 25 May 2018 the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect which is applicable to anyone [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors In April, the EU court ruled that the degree of similarity between the marks MASSI and MESSI is not [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors Luxury shoe designer Christian Louboutin received a favourable ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") [...]

By Janine Hollesen and Donvay Wegierski, Directors The rights of copyright are incredibly powerful once they come into being, the requirements for which are that the [...]

Nando's Chicken Limited is the proprietor of at least thirty nine UK trade marks and recently served a letter of demand on Fernando's restaurant which is [...]