The primary purpose of a trade mark is to act as a badge of origin by distinguishing the goods of the proprietor from the same kind of goods made by others in the course of trade.

AI is everywhere, and if you’re using it in-house, do you have the necessary policies in place?

“Trademark protection does not end at registration, and trademark enforcement does not need to mean lengthy litigation or extensive legal fees for brand owners." - Tammi Pretorius

#PatentRegistration #Assignments-In a rights transfer, we provide strategic advice & assists with preparing assignment documents & attending to assignment recordals in any country.

A #patent is an exclusive right or monopoly granted by the state, to a person, persons or legal entity, for the right to exclude third parties from exploiting a patented invention for a limited period in a specific territory.

Copyright - Joint authors may be joint owners of copyright. An owner of copyright in a work may also assign part of the copyright to another party, which will result in such a party, together with the original owner, becoming joint owners of the copyright in the work.

#Patents are territorial and have to be applied for in every country where #patent #protection is required.

#Patent searches: Many inventors or applicants file patent applications without conducting searches. Such applications are thus filed subject to the risk of an invention not being patentable.

A country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) is a two-letter code for a specifi c geographic territory such as .za for South Africa and .uk for the United Kingdom. Every country is allocated a ccTLD.

Musical works (A category eligible for copyright protection); “Musical works” consist of music, without any words or actions which are intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music.

Computer programs (A category eligible for copyright protection); A “computer program” is a set of instructions which, when used on a computer, direct its operation to bring about a result.

An exclusive licence grants the rights to use a trade mark, to the exclusion of all others, even the trade mark proprietor.

A sole licence, on the other hand, grants the licensee a right to use the trade mark to the exclusion of all third parties, although the proprietor is also entitled to use the trade mark.

A non-exclusive licence grants a licensee a right to use the trade mark, but not necessarily to the exclusion of other third parties.

The ® symbol may only be used once a trade mark has been registered. A trade mark is only registered once the certificate of registration has been issued and use of the symbol ® in other circumstances is a criminal offence.

Where a trade mark has not (yet) been registered, the symbolTM may be used to denote ownership of the trade mark/trade mark pending.