South Africa Government Completes IP Policy, Plans To Publish It This Month

CAPE TOWN — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in South Africa has confirmed that the long-awaited national draft IP policy will be published in the Government Gazette this month. This comes after Cabinet approved the draft IP policy at its latest meeting last week.

Marumo Nkomo, director-legal, international trade and investment at the International Trade and Economic Development (ITED) at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) confirmed in written correspondence to Intellectual Property Watch: “It should be published during August.”

Cabinet, which is government’s highest decision-making body, considered the draft IP Policy in March this year but requested that some changes be made to the document.

In June, Intellectual Property Watch reported (IPW, Africa, 6 June 2017) that the proposed changes by cabinet had been incorporated into the document and that it was undergoing Inter-Ministerial Committee on IP (IMCIP) processes.

At the time, there was no confirmation of when next Cabinet would see the document.

However, the DTI today clarified the status of the draft IP Policy by announcing on its website the following:

“Following the publication of the Intellectual Property (IP) Consultative Framework in 2016, the draft IP Policy has since been developed by the dti in partnership with the inter-Ministerial Committee on Intellectual Property (IMCIP). The draft IP Policy will be published in the Government Gazette in due course. All submissions on the said document can be emailed to ippolicy2017@thedti.gov.za by no later than (sixty) 60 days from date of publication in the Government Gazette.”

Nkomo said in written correspondence to IP-Watch: “We are pleased Cabinet has approved and look forward to working with stakeholders to finalise the first phase of what will be a comprehensive, progressive IP Policy for [South Africa].”

The draft IP policy can be read here [pdf].