UCT impressive - Shanghai team

The Faculty of Law played host to - and dazzled - a three-strong delegation from the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration (SIPA) in China that visited UCT recently.

The SIPA team were hosted by Professor Julian Kinderlerer, who holds the chair in intellectual property law at UCT, and the faculty's deputy dean (internationalisation), Professor Evance Kalula.

The institutions identified common national ground - as developing countries, both had an interest in creating databases of traditional knowledge - but also came to an agreement on two specific issues.

The first is that SIPA will recommend UCT as a training destination for IP law (a recommendation that will include a visiting scholarship programme). Secondly, Kinderlerer will represent Africa at SIPA's international and annual IP forum.

"They are keen to have new perspectives as well as a representative from Africa, and for my part I would be very interested to be involved in such a dialogue," said Kinderlerer.