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Effective immediately from 13 March 2026, amendments to the Regulations Relating to the Classification, Packing and Marking of Vinegar and Imitation Vinegar have come into force under the Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990 (Government Notice No. R.7218, the ‘Amendments’). The Amendments introduce important changes affecting class designations, acidity declarations, marketing claims and supply‑chain transparency for vinegar products sold in South Africa.
Effective immediately from 13 March 2026, South Africa has amended the Vinegar And Imitation Vinegar Labelling Regulations, with immediate consequences for packaging, class designations, acidity statements, and front-of-pack claims.
The Department of Agriculture is seeking industry input on the possible introduction of a new class in the Certain Raw Processed Meat Product Regulations for a “new” econo or value product consisting of raw minced meat or raw mixed-species minced meat combined with mechanically deboned meat (MDM), edible offal, spices, and water.
Under the current South African patent system, the Patent Office does not substantively examine patent applications for novelty or inventiveness before grant. Instead, South Africa operates what is commonly referred to as a non-examining (or depository) system, in terms of which it is the responsibility of the patent applicant to ensure that the claims define an invention that is new and inventive over the state of the art.
The Companies Tribunal on 13 February 2026 issued a decision regarding a company name objection based on trade mark rights, in the matter of Assembled Investments (Pty) Ltd (the applicant), and Rosemary (Pty) Ltd (the first respondent), with the Registrar of Companies as the second respondent.
The adoption of the 13th Edition of the Nice Classification, the international system for categorising goods and services for trade mark purposes, introduces a number of structural reclassifications for new trade mark applications. This edition seeks to better reflect modern commerce, emerging technologies and functional distinctions between goods and services.
