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Guest post: What can IP offer Africa – and what can Africa offer IP?

A handsome book recently arrived on my crowded desk, demanding attention: it’s Innovation & Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa, edited by scholars Jeremy de Beer, Chris Armstrong, Chidi Oguamanam and Tobia Schonwetter. Published by the UCT Press in association with the IP Unit of the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town (that’s what ‘UCT’ stands for) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), it’s one of those lovely books that you don’t have to buy since you can read it online or download it in its entirety – all 431 pages of it – by accessing its website here.

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Budget 2015: Legal reaction to the government’s pre-election plans for pensions, tax and the oil industry

In his final Budget before the general election in May, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has today (18 March) set out his tax and spending plans to MPs, with an agenda including further reforming the pension industry, raising £5.3bn from the banking sector, tackling tax avoidance and evasion, and supporting the North Sea oil industry.

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‘We have to find our own place’: Mishcon de Reya kicks off strategy review as it looks for 10-year plan

After surpassing revenue targets two years early last summer, high-flying City firm Mishcon de Reya has kick-started the process for its firmwide strategy review and is currently interviewing external consultants to help shape its vision.

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Revolving doors: Magic Circle loses partners in Europe and Asia while Bakers hires in Africa

Last week saw both Clifford Chance (CC) and Allen & Overy (A&O) lose partners in Europe while, in Hong Kong, Linklaters lost a capital markets partner to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. In South Africa, Baker & McKenzie made a significant hire, bringing in DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr’s head of projects and infrastructure.

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A $40m award: Clyde & Co client Glencore loses High Court fraud case

Withers‘ client, Romanian oil company OMV Petrom, has succeeded in its high profile dispute against natural resource giant Glencore at London’s High Court, with Glencore, represented by Clyde & Co, ordered to pay out just over $40m for fraudulently shipping oil of a lower than supposed quality to Romania in the 1990s.

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