Donvay Wegierski

Director

Donvay is a Director and leads the substantial foreign trade mark division within the firm’s Intellectual Property (IP) practice area.

Donvay advises on a diverse range of IP matters with clients in many different sectors including large FMCG’s, banking and insurance, oil & gas, technology, wine and agriculture in over eighty countries worldwide. Her expertise include trade mark portfolio management; trade mark clearance searches and registration, trade mark oppositions and passing off matters; due diligence reports in IP commercial transactions; counterfeit goods and domain names. With several years of experience working in Africa, Donvay has gained valuable local knowledge of country-specific requirements, nuances and issues across Africa.

Experience: 20 years

Practice areas

Intellectual Property

Expertise

Intellectual Property
Trade mark portfolio management
Trade mark searching, filing and prosecution
Trade mark oppositions, infringements and passing off matters
Due diligence reports in IP commercial transactions, with particular emphasis on foreign and African trade marks
Counterfeit goods, customs recordals
Domain names

Relevant Experience

Advises on

The maintenance and protection of trademark portfolios internationally
Domain name management and disputes, including all top-level domains such as .com, .net, .org and country codes such as .co.za; domain name complaints and dispute resolution; maintenance and management of domain name portfolios; domain name recovery
Contentious matters throughout Africa
Regularly instructed by foreign counsel concerning the maintenance and protection of client trade mark portfolios internationally

Advised / Represented / Acted on behalf of:

Capitec Bank, which includes the maintenance and protection of its trade mark portfolio internationally; domain name management and disputes before the World Intellectual Property Organization
Large FMCGs in contentious matters throughout Africa

Career

Admitted as an attorney, 2006
LLB, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 1999
BSocSc, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Highlights

Ranked as a recommended lawyer by WTR 1000 | 2025 | Intellectual Property | Trademark
Ranked as a Recommended practitioner by Who's Who Legal | 2024 | Intellectual Property | Trademarks
Ranked as a Leading Lawyer (Band 3) by Chambers Global | 2024 - 2025 | Intellectual Property
Recognised as one of Africa's leading practitioners in the Who's Who Legal: Thought Leaders Africa 2024
Ranked lawyer by World Trademark Review 1000 | 2014 - 2017, 2021 - 2024
Named as a “Trade Mark Star’” by Managing Intellectual Property's IP Stars | 2020 – 2024
Ranked lawyer (Band 4) by Chambers Global | 2017 – 2022 | Intellectual Property
Ranked as a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 | 2016 – 2022, 2024 | Intellectual Property
Regularly contributes to publications on IP articles and comments to the press and radio
Client presentations and workshops on topics relating to IP
Praised by sources as an "excellent trade mark practitioner“, with one adding that "she's great, very responsive, and she understands how US clients work”
Shortlisted in the 2025 Managing IP EMEA Awards as IP Practitioner of the Year

Authorships

Regular contributions to publications on IP articles