Added Legal Value Newsletter Volume 1 Number 3

31 March 2008

Shooting with blanks

A signature on a blank page in a contract selling land makes the whole contract invalid. The Highest Court of Appeal held in Just Name Properties v Fourie ‹2007› that section 2 of the Act required that all material terms of an agreement must be reduced to writing for it to be valid.

The fact that they signed two blank pieces of paper was fatal to the whole agreement. The Court agreed with an earlier Judgment that: ‘What the defendant signed was not an agreement but a piece of paper...it was certainly not an agreement when the defendant signed it and accordingly it cannot be regarded as an agreement having force and effect.’

For the luv of soap!

A lot of money is spent every year in South Africa to develop products. The law can protect your brand as the owners of Lux soap discovered. They were concerned about a new soap launched by a competitor. The new soap was called “Soft LUV”. “Lux” had been registered under the Trademarks Act.

The High Court held that “LUX” and “LUV” were too close. The Court said that it should imagine itself in the market place like a typical customer. If it was very likely that such a customer would be confused or deceived, the original brand would be protected. Both LUV and LUX were invented words. The owners of the “LUV” brand, had more than 15000 possible three-letter options to choose a name from. It had chosen an option of which only one letter differed from a reputable invented brand mark. The two marks looked and sounded confusingly similar. For this reason the an interdict was granted and the name “Soft LUV” was regarded as an infringement of the Trademarks Act.

How does the transfer of my property work?

The process from deed of sale to final registration is discussed on our website. To read the relevant page, click on the smiley:

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