ATC130502: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill, dated 2 May 2013

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill, dated 2 May 2013

The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, having reconsidered the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill [B 8B-2010] (the “Bill”) referred to it by resolution of the National Assembly adopted on 14 March 2013 (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 15 March 2013), and reclassified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) as a section 76 Bill, reports as follows:

1. In the committee’s report dated 6 March 2013 (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, dated 6 March 2013), the committee concurred with the President’s views that the Bill is not a Money Bill and therefore does not fall under section 77 of the Constitution, 1996, and further, after having been advised by the JTM, agrees that provisions of the Bill substantially affect certain matters listed in Schedule 4 of the Constitution, in particular traditional leadership and cultural matters, and should therefore be dealt with in terms of the section 76 of the Constitution.

2. By resolution of the National Assembly adopted on 14 March 2013, the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill [B 8B – 2010] was submitted to the JTM for reconsideration of its classification, and would be referred to the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL) for comment (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 18 March 2013) .

3. In a letter dated 10 April 2013, the NHTL submitted its comments on the Bill for consideration by the committee in accordance with section 18(1) of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 2003, Act No. 41 of 2003.

4. The committee, having considered the comments of the NHTL, is of the opinion that the substance of the comments received from the NHTL does not materially differ from the original comments presented to the committee on 20 October 2010 and accordingly is satisfied that it has duly considered all comments made by the NHTL.

5. After deliberations, the committee recommends that the Bill is adopted without amendment. The DA objected.

Report to be considered.