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SOUTH AFRICA THE McDONALDS APPEAL A landmark decision A recent decision reached in the Appellate division of the Supreme Court of South Africa is regarded as greatly reassuring to foreign investors. Two South African concerns, Dax Properties CC (Dax) and Joburgers Drive-inn Restaurants (Joburgers) were interdicted and restrained from imitating, reproducing or translating in South Africa any of McDonalds Corporations (McDonalds) trade marks in which the words McDONALD or McDONALDS appear. The Appeal court considered the provisions of Section 35 of the new South African Trade Marks Act and clarified that it is enough for a plaintiff to prove that the mark is well known as a mark which has its origin in some foreign country, provided that as a fact, the proprietor of the mark is a person who is a national of a convention country; or a person who is domiciled in, or has a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in a convention country. In so far as the applications for the expungement of McDonalds registrations were concerned, the Appeal court held that in view of its finding that the MACDONALDS marks were well known, even if these applications were successful, the respondents would still not be allowed to use the disputed trade marks. As such the Court refused to grant the order for expungement. Source and copyright 1996 Deneys Reitz

AFRICA AFRICAN REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY ORGANISATION (ARIPO) BANJUL PROTOCOL (TRADE MARKS) We have been notified by the Director-General of ARIPO that three Contracting States, namely, Malawi, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, have now lodged their Instruments of Ratification. Accordingly, in terms of Section 11.3, the Protocol shall enter into force and become operational on: 6 MARCH 1997 From that date, the Rules formulated under the Protocol provide for the filing of a single trade mark application having effect in one or more of the above-mentioned states and that may extend to more than one class of goods, and/or services. The application may be lodged direct with the ARIPO Office in Harare or, at the option of the applicant, at the National office of a Contracting State which will after brief examination as the compliance with filing formalities, transmit the application to the ARIPO Office for processing. Each application shall designate one or more of the Contracting States in which it is to be effective, shall state the name and address of the applicant, shall be accompanied by a minimum of four (4) representation of the mark if a device, and shall contain a clear and complete list of the particular goods or services in respect of which registration of the mark is requested, with an indication of the corresponding class or classes in the International Classification, (Nice - as amended) as may be prescribed Source and copyright 1997 Galloway and Co.

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