Tshepo Shabangu replaces Victor Williams and is the first black and third woman president of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL).

She is a partner at intellectual property law specialist firm, Spoor & Fisher, has 12 years of experience in domestic and international trade mark law, and will serve a one year term. Shabangu has been on the Institute Council for six years prior to her appointment.

The South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law, with 289 members, was established in 1954 and represents 140 patent attorneys, patent agents and trade mark practitioners in South Africa who specialise in Intellectual Property Law, which embraces the law relating to patents, trademarks, registered designs, copyright and unlawful competition and includes litigation, licensing and franchising.

Shabangu intends to ensure that the Institute is more relevant to members, that it is all encompassing for young and old and, most critically, that it plays an active and pioneering role in the drafting and development of IP legislation in South Africa.

She says that she intends to solidify the organisation’s relationships with the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) and other government departments, such as the department of Trade and Industry.
“Beyond that we will seek to build on our relations with our stakeholders,” she says. “Our members must feel that this is their Institute, we must be able to give back to our communities, and we must be close to all our stakeholders.”

Shabangu was appointed president of the SAIIPL at the organisation’s AGM in November this year.

At Spoor & Fisher she specialises in local and international trade mark law, the drafting of franchising and related IP agreements, company and close corporations name registrations and corporate governance. She’s a member of the Corporate Lawyers Association, Black Lawyers Association and Licensing Executives Society. She chairs the Anglo American Inyosi Community Trust and represents the Trust on the Inyosi board of directors. She is also a board member of the Board of Control of LSSA (UNISA Distance Learning), sits on the ad hoc ethics committee of the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) and the companies committee of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces (LSNP). Shabangu has obtained Bproc, LLB and LLM degrees, the latter obtained Magna Cum Laude from the University of Bonn in Germany. She is also fluent in German.