South Africa

Firm overview

Adams & Adams is an internationally recognised and leading African law firm that specialises in providing intellectual property, corporate and commercial services.

With primary office locations in South Africa and branches and associate offices in a number of African countries, our firm’s leadership position as the largest intellectual property law practice in Africa, and one of South Africa’s foremost corporate, property and commercial law firms is reflected in the ground-breaking work we do and the valuable client relationships we have with many of the world’s largest corporations and organisations, as well as small to medium-sized companies.

Our Intellectual Property law practices work with clients around the globe and across many industries to protect, enforce and commercialise their intellectual property. The group offers clients a full range of legal services relating to the acquisition, enforcement and commercialisation of intellectual property rights. These services include counsel and handling of transactions in cases involving patents, copyrights, trade marks, designs, licensing, and data security. The partners and associates in our Intellectual Property Group also litigate these issues in courts across Africa. Adams & Adams is the largest IP firm in Africa and is ranked among the leading firms in Intellectual Property in the world.

Adams & Adams is firmly rooted in Africa – with a tenacious belief in the economic growth potential and spirit of the continent. Our head office in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, provides the perfect gateway through which our partners, supported by some 700 professionals and staff, render a broad range of legal services to clients in Africa and the rest of the world. 

Through our associate offices and long established networks, we serve our global client base throughout the African continent - in matters of intellectual property, commercial law, property and litigation. Adams & Adams regularly hosts a meeting of partners from associate offices throughout the continent– a network meeting designed to maintain relationships, build capacity and share information about updates on intellectual property and corporate & commercial developments across the continent.

Society and business support:

• Adams & Adams Secretarial Training Academy
• WIPO Inventor Assistance Program
• TuksNovation Business Incubator
• Rise against Hunger
• Norridge Primary school  

Last updated 15th March 2021

Firm overview

Von Seidels is a specialist IP law firm in Africa with a team of over 90 people. We assist clients both locally and internationally in obtaining all forms of IP protection and deals with all IP related commercial activities, including agreements, valuations and litigation.

Our head office is in Cape Town and we have a satellite office in Johannesburg, South Africa. We have offices in ARIPO (Namibia), OAPI (Cameroon) and Nigeria.

Von Seidels OAPI office is based in Cameroon. OAPI (Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle) is a regional IP filing system providing protection in its 17 member countries: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Comoros.

Von Seidels ARIPO office is based in Namibia. ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation) is a regional IP filing system with 18 member countries: Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Our offices cover the majority of the African continent. South Africa, ARIPO, OAPI and Nigeria combined comprise 70% of Africa’s countries. In the rest of Africa we work with trusted agents. 

With many years of experience working in Africa, we have vast local knowledge and understanding of country-specific legislative requirements and issues across this continent.

Our firm has established itself as one of the leading IP firms in Africa. Our superior service delivery has resulted in Von Seidels being the only medium sized firm to ever be awarded “South Africa IP Firm of the Year” by Managing Intellectual Property.

High quality legal work as well as professional, timely advice is important to us. We are committed to adding value to our clients’ businesses through sound legal advice and effectively managing clients’ IP assets.

Von Seidels is the first IP firm in Africa to be ISO 9001 certified for service quality.

Last updated 14th September 2020

Firm overview

Established in 1998, de Chalains is a leading IP firm with its Head Office in close proximity to the High Court and Trade Marks & Patents Office in Pretoria, the Nation's Capital. The Raison d'être was simple- to create a unique firm by providing our clients with astonishing levels of service excellence at affordable rates.

This mantra encapsulated a commitment to nurturing and caring for our clients trade mark and patent portfolios in the most streamlined and cost effective manner. This focussed proactive approach provided a solid base from which to develop and evolve into the 21st Century as an award winning full service IP boutique offering clients a refreshing and authentic alternative to much older and larger firms culminating in Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) recognising the firm for eleven consecutive years as a leading light for trade mark prosecution in South Africa. 

Moreover, the firm's professional staff were originally members of large well known South African IP firms and have all honed their skills and craft over many years developing extensive experience and expertise in different facets of IP law and, in particular trade mark procurement and enforcement. Being lean, nimble, adroit and dynamic presupposes a degree of flexibility and agility exemplified by our total commitment to personal services tailored to suit our clients specific needs and budget requirements.

Since inception, the firm has gained a formidable reputation for accurate, swift and thorough service across the African continent with advice dispensed in a straight forward understandable manner without unnecessary jargon and legalese. The firm remains dedicated to building and maintaining long lasting mutually beneficial working relationships with clients whilst simultaneously ensuring high quality service at reasonable cost.

Last updated 10th July 2020

Firm overview

Norton Rose Fulbright in Canada is unique in its ability to provide seamless IP advice on a truly national and global scale. We have one of the few IP practices with such a designation in Canada covering IP professionals in each of Québec City, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. The integration of Bull Housser Tupper was completed on January 1, 2017 and has added a particular depth in trademark prosecution and litigation, anti-counterfeiting, and trade secrets. 

Litigation practice:
The team of IP litigators at Norton Rose Fulbright is ranked among the best in Canada. We provide offensive and defensive litigation counsel in all areas of intellectual property, including patents infringement and impeachment actions under the Patent Act and pursuant prohibition proceedings and section 8 damages actions under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance Regulations), copyrights, trade-marks, trade-mark oppositions, trade secrets, counterfeit enforcement, and industrial designs. The team is particularly well known and regarded for its patent litigation work for pharmaceutical clients. Our roster of innovative pharmaceutical clients for which we act in litigation is second to none in Canada. As pharmaceutical patent disputes represent a significant part of patent litigation in Canada, our team is extremely active in this area. The patent litigation practice also includes mechanical patents, medical devices and oil and gas patents, among other technologies. More recently, several new partners with leading practices in trademark and copyright litigation have increased our capabilities, successes and client base in this area. 

Patent practice:
Norton Rose Fulbright's Canada patent attorneys and agents have highly specialized degrees and provide comprehensive intellectual property advice and global portfolio strategy. We handle the Canadian and global patent work for a stellar cross section of Canadian and international clients. Our Canadian Patent Centre of Excellence complements notably the patent expertise within Norton Rose Fulbright in the United States.

We are one of the largest patent filers in Canada with a particular emphasis on drafting original patents and global portfolio strategy, as evidenced by the fact that we are consistently one of the top PCT filers in Canada. We are often selected over our competitors because our patent prosecution expertise is unrivalled and works seamlessly with our disputes and regulatory lawyers to provide strategic and holistic approach to patent portfolio management. 

Trademark practice: 
We assist clients with all aspects of the branding process. This includes providing overall branding strategy, the drafting and prosecuting of trade-mark applications, the provision of advice regarding availability and registrability of marks in Canada and globally. Our team provides strategic trade-mark advice including portfolio review, infringement surveillance, and advice on legal issues connected with introducing products and services to the market, such as branding, product information and advertising. We assist clients with all aspects of brands expansion into social media including acquisition of domain names, and enforcement of brands on all social media channels globally. Our litigation team acts for clients in opposition proceedings, infringement proceedings and expungement proceedings and trade libel actions. 

Copyright practice:
Our copyright team has expertise in all aspects of copyright law including clearance, acquisition and registration, infringement and litigation, due diligence, licenses, assignments and transactional issues. We act for copyright owners working in various industries such as film, television, video, music, art, fashion, literature, software and evolving media including telecommunications and the Internet. Similarly, our trade-marks team works with clients to acquire, commercialize and safeguard their brands, including logos, product or container shapes and packaging. We advise on all aspects of the selection, registration, commercialization and protection of rights related to trade-marks and brands. We are regularly called upon to advise on the copyright aspects of advertising and marketing campaigns. Clients consistently call upon our professionals for wide industry coverage, the shared experience between the team and our large panel of services. Our litigation lawyers are also active in copyright disputes at both the trial and appellate levels in the software, media, communications, and entertainment sectors with clients including film studios, software and gaming developers, telecommunications companies, the television industry and the music business. We have extensive experience representing rights holders before the Copyright Board and assisting in the enforcement of tariffs, as well as in anti-counterfeiting mandates for fashion enterprises and standards organizations, including border seizures and rapid enforcement campaigns. 

Commercial IP practice:
The IP team handles a wide range of commercial transactions relating to all areas of intellectual property. For example, our commercial IP team has assisted a major financial institution in developing key collaboration agreements, developed and negotiated licensing agreements with other financial institutions, developed blockchain consortium agreements, and very complex IP co-existence and ownership issues.

Last updated 31st July 2018