The great and the good of IP law gathered in Stellenbosch last
week. I went too. The occasion: a seminar to celebrate the creation
of a Chair of IP Law at Stellenbosch University - funded by Johan
Rupert, the chair is named in honour of a free-thinking judge who
stood up to the apartheid regime, Anton Mostert, and the bottom of
the person sitting in it belongs to leading IP lawyer, Owen
Dean.
There were some very credible foreign speakers. Much of what
they had to say was positive – EBay is cooperating with
luxury goods manufacturer Richemont to take down
counterfeiters' sites, the World Intellectual Property
Organisation is working hard to get people to understand why
counterfeiting is wrong, and the EU registration system gets
slicker by the day. And an exchange between the Chinese delegate
– who tried to justify his countrymen's propensity for
copying by reminding us that IP is new to them – and the EU
delegate, who said that it's a bit rich for what's
