A South African High Court decision in 2004, Couve and another v Reddot International (Pty) Limited and others, introduced exchange control requirements for the assignment of IP rights to foreign entities.
A South African High Court decision in 2004, Couve and another v Reddot International (Pty) Limited and others, introduced exchange control requirements for the assignment of IP rights to foreign entities.
In the Reddot case, the court held that assignments of patent rights from South African exchange control residents to foreign entities are subject to Regulation 10(1)(c) of the Exchange Control Regulations, 1961. Hence, prior Treasury approval is required, failing which the assignments are null and void. It was interpreted widely to apply to all other forms of intellectual property.
Regulation 10(1)(c) provides that:
The rest of this article is locked for subscribers only. Please login to continue reading.
If you don't have a login, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content. Please use this link and follow the steps.
To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, use the same link but select the 'trial' option in the dropdown box. NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription to us that we can add you to for FREE, please email Atif Choudhury at achoudhury@worldipreview.com
exchange control, IP rights
