Trade mark, copyright and patents– basic differences and how to protect your intellectual property rights
It is important for business owners to understand that most of your products, goods, brands, technologies, logos and creative works are protected by one of the three types of Intellectual Property Law: copyright, trade mark or patent. By knowing what type of intellectual property rights you own, you can take the necessary legal steps to more...
Google Adwords and TM term keyword searches
South Africa: As it stands the policy with regards to TM’s and Google’s attitude with regard to policing TM’s has varied from region to region. In South Africa, Google only monitors the use of TM’s in ad text and not in the keywords themselves. Instituting a TM complaint procedure in terms of Google Adwords’ Terms more...
Common Law TM Protection
Normally someone registers a TM in order to protect that mark at law and to more easily form the basis for a claim of TM infringement. This does not mean that an unregistered mark will not have any protection. An unregistered mark can offer protection but it is less easy to establish and prove common more...
Employees Who Write Software: Who Owns the Copyright?
In 2006 I distributed a short guide to software development and copyright, dealing with amongst other things ownership of the copyright in a computer programme written by an employee in the course of his employment. At the time the law on the matter was somewhat uncertain, but the recent case of King v SA Weather more...