[By Caroline Ncube]

On the 24th of February 2016, the UCT IP Unit hosted a CopyrightX:UCT special event and staff seminar at which Professor Jane Ginsburg of Columbia Law School presented a paper entitled ‘Exceptional Authorship: The Role of Copyright Exceptions in Promoting Creativity’ [available for download at SSRN]. The seminar was well attended and a lively debate followed Prof Ginsburg’s presentation. On the previous day Prof Ginsburg gave a guest lecture to LLB and LLM IP students during which she spoke about the reversion of copyright, which is one of the proposals included in the Copyright Amendment Bill, 2015.

The South African Intellectual Property Law Journal (SAIPLJ) hereby calls for submissions for publication in the 2015 issue.
Contributions on all aspects of intellectual property law that have relevance to Africa, particularly South Africa, are welcome. Submissions may be in the form of articles or notes not exceeding 10 000 words and 6000 words respectively. All submissions must be of a scholarly nature and conform to the SAIPLJ house style (available at www.jutalaw.co.za).
The journal is published by Juta & Co and is double peer-reviewed.
The SAIPLJ accepts submissions on an ongoing basis, however, the final submission date for consideration for the 2015 issue is 30 April 2015.
Submissions and enquiries can be directed to the Editors at editoriplj@uct.ac.za

By Caroline Ncube, Reposted from Afro-IP

A report entitled ‘Copyright policy and the right to science and culture’ authored by  the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed has been released (download it here, ref A/HRC/28/57 ).

The document summary reads:

‘In the present report, the Special Rapporteur examines copyright law and policy from the perspective of the right to science and culture, emphasizing both the need for protection of authorship and expanding opportunities for participation in cultural life.Recalling that protection of authorship differs from copyright protection, the Special Rapporteur proposes several tools to advance the human rights interests of authors. The Special Rapporteur also proposes to expand copyright exceptions and limitations to empower new creativity, enhance rewards to authors, increase educational opportunities, preserve space for non-commercial culture and promote inclusion and access to cultural works. An equally important recommendation is to promote cultural and scientific participation by encouraging the use of open licences, such as those offered by Creative Commons.’

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(By Caroline Ncube, Reposted from Afro-IP)

The second volume of the SA Intellectual Property Law Journal, published by Juta Law and edited by Lee-Ann Tong & Caroline Ncube is now available.

Juta Law is a RoMEO white publisher and the full length articles are not immediately available online to non-subscribers. Some articles will be available after June 2015 via institutional repositories affiliated with the authors, where they are available.

For more information:
See here for Juta Law’s copyright & self-archiving policies
See here for purchase and subscription
Relevant Institutional Repositories: UCT, Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria, University of the Western Cape

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by Prof Jeremy Phillips (reposted from Afro-IP CC-BY)

The draft national Intellectual Property Policy proposals for improving South Africa’s patent registration system: a review”, by fellow Afro-IP blogger Caroline Ncube (Associate Professor, University of Cape Town), has just been published online in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP). The print version will be available soon. According to the abstract:

This article discusses South Africa’s draft Intellectual Property Policy proposed reforms. It considers how these may be practically implemented. In particular, it focuses on the phased sector specific introduction of substantive patent examination, possible co-operation with other national or regional patent offices to enhance examination capacity, the retention of non-examination for utility or second-tier patents and the involvement of third parties in the examination process. It also considers the re-introduction of opposition proceedings to further strengthen the patent system.

The article points to other jurisdictions that have implemented some of these options such as Australia’s utility patent system, the successful implementation of the peer-to-patent project in countries such as the United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) and opposition proceedings in Europe, the UK and Australia. It concludes that these are plausible and viable options that should be further explored for adaptation to the South African context.

The article will be of interest to those following policy and legislative developments in the developing world and particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, where change often begins in South Africa then extends throughout the region as neighbouring states follow South Africa’s lead.

citation: Caroline B. Ncube (2014) ‘The draft national Intellectual Property Policy proposals for improving South Africa’s patent registration system: a review’ Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice first published online September 12, 2014 Available at doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpu158