IP Insights

“The Trademarks Act No.17, 2010 was recently amended by the Trademark (Amendment) Regulations No. 9 of 2021”. Uganda has recently amended its Trade Mark Regulations, bringing about several...

The African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA is a free trade area founded in 2018, with trade commencing as of 1 January 2021. It was created among 54 of the 55 African Union nations. One of the...

In the event that an interested person discovers, through what ever means, a patented product that is still in force, and that person wishes to make use of that patent in South Africa, the person...

In September 2018, a landmark decision by the Constitutional Court in South Africa legalised certain acts in relation to cannabis.  In particular, the court ruled that the private cultivation,...

Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) File Transfer Notice The South African CIPC has commenced with the second stage of the large-scale file transition to a new bulk storage...

Looking at privacy rights in South Africa with the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) we stand at the verge of a technological revolution, characterised by the digitalisation of...

The recent COVID-19 pandemic did not only have socio-economic implications but has initiated one of the worst financial depressions the world has ever seen. However, as the saying goes, “Necessity...

A domain name is essentially the address which directs users to a particular internet location. This internet location has a unique identifier, the Internet Protocol (IP) address, which would also...

A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) can be used to avoid the “gentleman’s agreement” dilemma, by legally binding a participant to not disclose/divulge/release the confidential information shared with...

Why startup businesses need to consider registering their IP rights from the word “GO!” When starting a new business, making a new product, building a new brand or using a new domain name, the first...

On 20 March 2019, Wessel van Wyk was privileged to present at a Water Research Commission workshop of South Africa. The workshop, entitled “A Framework for Management of IP Emanating From...

The Renaissance Guy, Andrew Patterson, has a goal of hiking up Table Mountain, Cape Town, every day for a full year… but for what purpose? Last year, Andrew realised that he had a calling to...

Smit & Van Wyk would like to congratulations to Jacques and Kim - the candidate patent attorneys at Smit & Van Wyk. We are proud to announce that two of our candidate patent attorneys,...

IP (Intellectual property) is considered an asset for any business. Intellectual Property is an intangible asset which means that the asset is not physical, it is as the result of human creativity,...

The Yimi™ personal information system provides secure sharing and authenticating of information with service providers. It is an easy-to-use system for transmitting personal information from a...

Since the African Democratic Change (ADeC) emerged as a new political party in South Africa it’s ADeC logo has drawn much attention because of its similarities to that of the ANC logo. The...

Smit & Van Wyk, Inc. proudly celebrate two of our candidate attorneys that have completed their articles of clerkship. On Monday 29 January 2018, Rogan Bruce and Kelsey Savig have been admitted...