Get the help of Pretoria Trademark Attorneys

March 19, 2010 | Law

The Pretoria trademark attorneys at Smit & Van Wyk are available to assist in the application for trademarks regarding products and services. It is important to send all relevant documentation to the Pretoria trademark attorneys including the products and services you intend to have trademarked. It will be necessary to file a trademark application for each of the international categories in which you want to trademark the product or service. Our Pretoria trademark attorneys will assess the products and services and then file the applications at the South African Trademark Office. We will also conduct searches to assess whether a similar product or brand has been trademarked. The searches are needed to prevent future confusion and lawsuits because of possible infringements.

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Why make use of Pretoria trademark lawyers?

March 19, 2010 | Other

There are numerous benefits associated with the use of Pretoria trademark lawyers to file trademark applications. Although you can go the route of application without Pretoria trademark lawyers, it should be noted that you will also have to conduct trademark searches before registering a specific logo, slogan, product or service as trademark. The searches must be comprehensive as another company can very well come along a few months down the line and challenge the trademark after you have invested a lot of money in your branding. If the challenger wins you will have to either pay compensation or will have to discontinue usage of the trademark. In some cases both will be required. The Smit & Van Wyk Pretoria trademark lawyers have years of experience in trademark registration and as such will help you avoid all the pitfalls associated with the trademark application process.

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Get the help of Gauteng trademark attorneys

March 19, 2010 | Other

Don’t fall into the trap of building a brand and investing thousands to millions without registering a trademark for your company name. The Smit & Van Wyk Gauteng trademark attorneys can assist. It should be noted that if a product is trademarked, it doesn’t mean that your company name will also automatically be trademarked. A trademark registration must be done for every item, logo, slogan, title, domain name, and business name for which you want exclusive usage rights. Registering the company name at CIPRO doesn’t protect it against the usage from another party. You need trademark registration for exclusivity. If you want help with the process contact the experienced team of Gauteng trademark attorneys at Smit & Van Wyk.

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Litigation help from Gauteng trademark lawyers

March 19, 2010 | Law

The Smit & Van Wyk Gauteng trademark lawyers can also assist in lawsuits. Trademark infringements take place daily. It is even possible for someone to infringe on your company trademark rights at this very moment. If the person registered the trademark and published the ad within the Patent Journal you will have three months to respond if the trademark infringes on your trademark rights. If however, the trademark is used without ever registering it, it can go unnoticed for a long time. It is however, your responsibility as the rightful owner of a mark to take legal steps against the person who infringed upon your trademark rights. This is where our Gauteng trademark lawyers will be beneficial. Our expertise in trademarks, the law, and various proceedings will help to ensure that you succeed in your case against the perpetrator.

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South Africa Patent Laws

February 18, 2010 | Advocates, Attorneys, Berne Convention, Brand Names, Confidential Information, Contracts, Copyright, Court, Designs, Domain Names, Franchises, Geographic Indicators, Hearsay, Intellectual Property, Inventions, Law, Other, Patent, Software, Trade Mark

South Africa Patent Laws favour the usage of attorneys Even though it is possible to file a patent application directly without the usage of a patent lawyer or attorney, it cannot be recommended. The reason is simple. The South Africa patent laws favour the usage of an attorney. The South African Patent Office is a non-investigating office. This means that you can complete the application, file it and even receive the patent right upon payment of the required fees without the invention complying with all the requirements. It is not a loophole in the system. It simply means that the responsibility lies with the applicant to ensure that the invention is indeed patentable and that the application will be done correctly. The snag comes in when another applicant or company questions the patentability of the invention down the line or argues that the idea was not original at all. Lawsuits may follow and all the money already spent in the commercial development of the patent may be lost forever. You will need the help of a patent lawyer who knows the South Africa patent laws and will conduct the novelty searches and apply in the correct manner right from the word go.

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Trademark infringements on the rise

February 3, 2010 | Advocates

Trademark infringements occur when the exclusive rights associated with a trademark are infringed by another party. This happens when a party other than the holder of the trademark makes use of the logo or identification of a product or service registered as a trademark by the holder thereof or uses one similar to the one registered as to cause confusion with consumers over the product. Trademark infringements are rising and although business owners may feel that registration will thus be useless, without registering the trademark the company will have no grounds for action against another party that copies its logo or identification. It is thus money well spent as it provides legal grounds for preventing counter fitting or causing of confusion with the public. Confusion can be based on the proximity of goods, similarity in the identification marks, marketing channels utilized and more.

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Prepaid Debit Card Patent Developments Over the Past Decade

February 3, 2010 | Advocates

Research results published at the GetDebit website (www.getdebit.com) indicate that patent applications published regarding prepaid debit cards have increased tremendously from 2001 to 2009. It does however, seem that there are still only a few major players regarding prepaid debit card patent applications including the likes of MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. The research published at the site also suggests that the successful issuing of patent applications regarding the debit cards still go mainly to the bigger companies with only a few awarded to smaller players in the field. American Express and First Datacorp lead the market in the USA for patent applications being granted to them. New innovations in the USA and smaller countries such as South Africa, may change the picture during the next couple of years.

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Copyright Indemnity for Search Engines in the UK

February 3, 2010 | Advocates

Amendments to a Bill in the UK seek to provide copyright indemnity for search engines. The proposed amendment 292 of the Digital Economy Bill if accepted will allow for the copying of information in part or in whole from websites by the search engines as part of the purpose of providing search engine services. This means that search engines such as Google and Yahoo will be able to index parts of news publisher sites and that deep linking would not be a problem or risk of copyright infringement. If approved by the House of Lords the amendments could also mean that publishers or website owners would not have the right to block search spiders through robots.txt files. The outcome remains to be seen, but with such rights given to search engines, website owners will enjoy less copyright protection.

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Misunderstanding the Role of the Patent Attorney

February 3, 2010 | Advocates

The role of the patent attorney is often misunderstood and as such many inventors believe it to be better to simply register their patents directly. Just as many inventors fail as the patent attorney has an important role to play. For one the patent attorney helps to assess whether the invention is patentable, helps with patent description, specifications, and also to find out whether there has been a similar application already handed in or approved. The lawyer is qualified not only in law, but also in engineering or a relevant area and as such has the qualifications and know-how to identify important aspects such as the obviousness of an invention, whether it falls under patent law or should in fact fall under copyright or designs etc.

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Role of the Patent Lawyer in South Africa

February 3, 2010 | Advocates

Oftentimes the terms Patent Lawyer, Patent Attorney or Patent Agent are used interchangeable. In short a person who wants to act as a patent lawyer in South Africa must be qualified in engineering and the law. The patent lawyer acts on behalf of the client regarding patent filings and oppositions. All legal aspects surrounding patents fall within the work scope of the patent lawyer. As such whether a person wishes to file a patent application, simply wants a patent search done, requires assistance with the setting up of a patent licence agreement, or want to oppose a patent application, the patent lawyer should be the first stop. Patent applications may go through when you apply directly, but you will also face the risk of several lawsuits or opposition if you have not done your research on its originality, usability, and the requirements as set out by the Patent Office for a patent to be valid. As such the first person to speak to before commencing with any application should be the patent lawyer.

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