Not every business owner is an entrepreneur

By |2023-06-19T06:54:45+00:00June 19th, 2023|Articles, Guides|

Is there a difference between an Entrepreneur and Business Owner? The term entrepreneurship stems from the Latin word “entreprendre” which means to start something or the undertaking of business dealings. A business owner is defined as someone who has undertaken to start a business and is responsible for the operational and monetary decisions of

Authors of copyright protectable works retain certain rights …

By |2023-01-23T11:38:46+00:00January 16th, 2023|Adams & Adams, Articles|

The issue of relinquishing copyright ownership in an original piece of writing, an artwork or a musical composition is a complex and delicate issue. Fortunately, South African law provides some guidelines as to what is morally fair for authors or creators of such works. The author of a work is typically the first owner

Flying under the radar: What are stealth trade mark applications?

By |2023-01-23T11:39:17+00:00December 14th, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

Trade mark protection is crucial for any brand owner, but it can sometimes create practical difficulties from a business perspective. When new trade mark applications are published by registries, information about a company or a brand owner’s new product or service is necessarily disclosed. As a result, brand owners often have to decide whether

Preventing genericide: Saving your trade mark from falling prey to the public domain

By |2023-01-23T11:39:50+00:00December 1st, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles, Guides|

Videotape, Escalator, Trampoline, Laundromat[1]. What do all of these words have in common? They were all once legally protectable trade marks which, due to the way in which they were used, have lost their distinctiveness and since become ‘generic’. But what does ‘generic’ mean? A generic trade mark is a word or phrase that

Regulator sanctions influencers over Lotto adverts – Comedians do not get the last laugh after failing to disclose that Twitter posts were paid advertising

By |2022-11-17T13:14:05+00:00November 1st, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

The Advertising and Regulatory Board (ARB) recently handed down a decision holding that the videos posted by comedians Skhumba Hlophe and Celeste Ntuli had breached the code on South African advertising. Hlophe and Ntuli uploaded videos on their Twitter accounts, promoting  South Africa’s national lottery, Ithuba Holdings RF (Pty) Ltd (Ithuba). The videos were

A second bite at the (appeal) cherry, In Thermos Hong Kong Limited v Doshi Ironmongers Limited

By |2022-11-17T13:12:40+00:00October 21st, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

In Thermos Hong Kong Limited v Doshi Ironmongers Limited (Civil Appeal (Application) E013 of 2021) [2022] KECA 544 (KLR), the Kenyan Court of Appeal had to determine whether a party had a second right to appeal an appellate decision from the High Court in relation to a trade mark dispute. To recap, this case was

Parody in South Africa: addressing the Hippo in the room

By |2022-11-17T13:16:08+00:00September 7th, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

A recent advertising parody has caused quite a stir at the watering hole, and left consumers questioning whether Hippo.co.za may have been out of line. The advert, which has already garnered over half a million views on YouTube alone, is a parody of OUTsurance’s “saver” advertisements that appears to spoof the original advertisements that featured Katlego

Department beefs up enforcement of Regulations

By |2022-09-15T08:48:55+00:00August 14th, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

It has been just under a month since the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development released a directive warning that certain meat analogue products are in contravention of local regulations relating to the packaging and labelling of processed meat products in SA (Regulation 1283 of 2019) in that they bear product names

Adams’ Anti-Counterfeiting Team deals another blow to manufacturers of counterfeit engine lubricant and oil products

By |2022-09-15T08:49:25+00:00August 12th, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

After thorough investigations by the firm’s internal private investigators, the Anti-Counterfeiting Team of Adams & Adams recently collaborated with the HAWKS (SAPS) in two provinces to clamp down on syndicates dealing in counterfeit engine lubricant and oil products. In the first operation in Gauteng, the team managed to identify and take down a manufacturing facility

Partial Patent Waiver for COVID-19 vaccines

By |2022-09-15T08:49:55+00:00August 2nd, 2022|Adams & Adams, Articles|

Participating countries attending the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland reached an agreement on 17 June 2022 to partially waive intellectual property restrictions on the manufacture and production of COVID-19 vaccines for the next five years. The partial waiver provides that developing nations may authorise the use of

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