CIPA extended the deadline for firms to file constitutions from 16 March to 30 September 2026 and now requires disclosure of beneficial ownership.
Section
Intellectual
Banjul Reboot: How ARIPO’s Overhaul Doubles Fees and Digitises Trademark Filing
ARIPO’s amended Banjul Protocol (1 March 2026) doubles trademark fees, mandates e-filing and cuts refusals to six months — pushing SA brands to file with care.
Class 42: How SA’s Trademark Update Makes Room for AI-as-a-Service
SA adopted the 13th edition Nice Classification on 1 Jan 2026, adding AI-as-a-Service to Class 42 and reclassifying goods — a prompt to re-audit marks.
Sealed Digitally: How the CIPC Put QR Codes on Every South African Patent
From 2 February 2026 the CIPC issues every SA patent digitally with a seal and QR code, making rights verifiable in seconds for deals and enforcement.
46th SADC Summit across SADC — regional framework to study — across SADC member states
Regional blocs accumulate strategy documents faster than they accumulate implementation. The Southern African Development Community now carries a Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan running to 2030, a Vision extending to 2050, and a fresh summit theme...
Blue Economy growth agenda across SADC — policy and strategy logic and what comes next
Regional blocs produce declarations far more easily than they produce operational law. That is the standing contradiction in SADC's institutional history, and it is the lens through which the outcomes of the 3rd Africa Blue Economy Week, held in Luanda from 22 to...
Angolan kwanza in RTGS across SADC — regional framework to study — and what comes next
SADC's regional integration architecture is full of instruments that exist on paper well before they operate in practice — protocols signed, strategies adopted, roadmaps published, with implementation trailing years behind ratification. The SADC Free Trade Area,...
SADC ninth Industrialisation Week — policy and strategy logic — for regional operators
SADC does not lack strategy documents. By the time its ninth annual Industrialisation Week opened at the Durban International Convention Centre on 27 July 2026, the bloc could point to at least four overlapping frameworks governing industrial policy: the...
People-to-People: The Soft Layer Holding Up the Hardware Story
China and the AU launched a 2026 Year of People-to-People Exchanges in Addis Ababa. The summit was long on symbolism and short on the scholarship and training numbers that sustain it.