EXCON: Has The President Gone Too Far?

The recent amendment to Regulation 10 of the Exchange Control Regulations has possibly opened a proverbial constitutional can of worms. The meaning of 'capital' was defined to include registered or unregistered intellectual property. In addition, 'exported from the Republic' is now defined as including 'the cession of, the creation of a hypothetic or other form of security over, or the assignment or transfer of any intellectual property right, to or in favour' of a non-resident. The result, in terms of Regulation 10(1)(c), is that no person may enter into any transaction whereby intellectual property or any right to intellectual property is directly or indirectly exported from South Africa without prior Exchange Control approval.