De Rebus - Volume 1997, Issue 351, April 1997

Die Raad vir Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing (RGN) het sedert 1972 verskeie opnames gedoen om die vergoeding van gegradueerdes vas te stel en te monitor. Die twaalfde opname is pas gepubliseer onder die titel Vergoeding van Gegradueerdes soos op 1 Julie 1994. ""My vorige artikels (1991 DR 371 en 1986 DR 493) was slegs gebaseer op die inligting van blanke mans, aangesien 1994 die eerste jaar was waarin al die bevolkingsgroepe en beide geslagte ingesluit is.

Whenever a sectional plan is cancelled, either on authorisation by the court or in terms of one of the alternative methods provided for in the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986, the Registrar of Deeds must effect the necessary alterations, amendments, endorsements and entries on the title deeds and in the registers and records kept by him. Furthermore, the Registrar must cause the land comprising the sectional title scheme to revert to the land register.

The common-law principle of 'substance over form' applied to tax-avoidance cases a landmark decision long overdue n March 1996 the then Appellate Division gave a judgment which, surprisingly, came as a shock to many tax consultants. In Erf 3183/1 Ladysmith (Pty) Ltd and Another v Commissioner for Inland Revenue 1996 (3) SA 942 (A) it was decided that the common-law principle of substance over form could be used to ignore a tax-avoidance scheme. Until this decision the Commissioner, mostly unsuccessfully, questioned schemes in terms of the general statutory anti-avoidance section, s 103(1) of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (the Act) (see Hicklin v Secretary for Inland Revenue 1980 (1) SA 481 (A)). This created the mistaken impression that if a scheme is structured in such a way that all four requirements of the section are not complied with the Commissioner has to give effect thereto.

Your trade-mark attorney needs the litigation work! The importance of conducting comprehensive investigations prior to adopting a new name or trade mark, or launching a new product, cannot be overemphasised, particularly in the light of the far-reaching provisions of the new Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993. In the past, when a trade-mark infringement was possible only when use was made of a trade mark confusingly similar to a registered trade mark on goods or services actually covered by the registration, searching was a reasonably simple exercise.

Decision of special appeal board - first of its kind The protection of new plant varieties has traditionally been handled by patent agents or patent attorneys. The reason for this was that plant breeders' rights fell under the umbrella of 'intellectual property'. in fact, under the 1952 Patents Act new plant varieties were protect able as 'plant patents'. South Africa got its first Plant Breeders' Rights Act in 1964. This Act was replaced by the present Plant Breeders' Rights Act 15 of 1976 mainly to bring the requirements and protection afforded in South Africa into line with those dictated by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

Internet domain - name disputes and trade-mark law The rapid expansion of on-line communications and the increasing commercial use of the Internet by businesses have given rise to a number of unique and interesting legal questions that seem set to launch the law into the era of cyberspace. The Internet consists of thousands of independent computer networks all over the world containing several million host computers that provide access to information on a global scale. The Internet's forerunner, called APRANET, was created by the US Defense Agency as a means of providing and distributing reliable communications in the event of a nuclear war.