Associate Professor Tobias Schonwetter

LLB Universität Hamburg
LLM, PhD University of Cape Town

Dr Tobias Schonwetter is an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town where he directs the IP Unit and the iNtaka Centre for Law & Technology. He specialises in and teaches intellectual property and cyberlaw, particularly the relationship between intellectual property, innovation and development.  Tobias is an Associate Member of the Centre of Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa. He regularly advises government entities in South Africa and is part of ASSAf’s POPIA compliance framework committee as well as NACI’s AI Strategy team (Trust and Regulation). Tobias has co-led numerous research projects in the area of IP and IT law, including the Open AIR project. He was a Senior Manager at PwC, a Global Law Professor at KU Leuven and a Regional Coordinator for Creative Commons. Until 2024, Tobias served on the board of UCT Press. Tobias has written numerous articles on intellectual property law and has spoken at various national and international conferences.

Books / book chapters

Artificial Intelligence and the Law in Africa [LexisNexis 2023]; Ncube, Oriakhogba, Schonwetter, Rutenberg (eds.)

 

Innovation Ecosystems in Africa -Solving the problems we have [Perlego Amalion 2023]; Adesida et al (eds.)

  • Chapter 7: ‘Collaborative Innovation and Networked Entrepreneurship in Africa’ (with Erika Kraemer-Mbula, Jeremy de Beer, Caroline Ncube, Chidi Oguamanam, Nagla Rizk, Isaac Rutenberg)

 

Music Borrowing and Copyright Law – A Genre-by-Genre Analysis, [Bloomsbury [2023]; Bonadio & Zhu (eds.)

  • Part II, Chapter 24: ‘The Many Facets of Borrowing and Creativity in South African Music’

 

Making Open Development Inclusive [The MIT Press 2020]

  • Chapter 15: ‘Open Innovation in Africa: Current Realities, Future Scenarios and Scalable Solutions’ (with Jeremy de Beer, Chris Armstrong, Shirin Elahi, Dick Kawooya, Erika Kramer Mbula, Caroline Ncube, Chidi Oguamanam, Nagla Rizk and Isaac Rutenberg)

Inclusive Trade in Africa - The African Continental Free Trade Area in Comparative Perspective, Routledge [2019]

  • Chapter 11: ‘A principled approach to intellectual property rights and innovation in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement’ (with Caroline Ncube, Jeremy De Beer and Chidi Oguamanam)

Human Rights, Digital Society and the Law, Routledge [2019]

  • Chapter 21: ‘Africa, the Internet and human rights’ (with CH Powell)

Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti - A country-by-country Legal Analysis", Cambridge University Press 

  • Chapter: ‘South Africa’

Ending Africa’s Energy Deficit and the Law: Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Africa, Oxford University Press [2018]

  • Chapter: ‘Intellectual Property Rights and Access to Energy Services in Africa: Implications for Development’

Situating and Contextualising Openness: Understanding the Diversity and Contexts of Open Science in Development, OCSDnet [publication planned for later in 2019]

  • Theme 3, Chapter 1: ‘Fieldnotes on Tensions Related to Openness in Researching Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Systems and Intellectual Property Rights’

Innovation, IP and Development in Africa, editor, UCT Press [2014]

  • Chapter 1: ‘Innovation, Intellectual Property and Development Narratives in Africa’
  • Chapter 16: ‘The Current Realities of Collaborative Intellectual Property in Africa’

Updating the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection for the Digital Age (2013), Consumers International [ISBN 978-0-9569943-7-0], edited by Dr. Jeremy Malcolm, [principal contributor]

  • Chapter 6: ‘South Africa’

Access to Knowledge in Africa: The Role of Copyright (2010), editor, UCT Press [ISBN 978-1-91989-545-1]

  • Chapter 1: ‘Introduction’
  • Chapter 8: ‘South Africa’
  • Chapter 10: ‘Summary and conclusions on copyright and education in Africa’

Basic Principles of Business Law (2010), 2nd edition, LexisNexis
[ISBN 9780 409 04544 4]

  • Chapter 18: ‘Intellectual Property’

Articles and briefs

‘Parallel Importation Prohibitions and the ‘Politics of the Copy’ in Africa’ IP Unit blog post (4 August 2017)

‘Conceptualising Knowledge Governance for Development’ 19 (2016) African Journal of Information and Communication pp. 1 et seq.

‘Current African Intersections Between Intellectual Property Rights and Knowledge Access’ 16 (2015) African Journal of Information and Communication pp. 3 et seq.

‘Licensing Open Data in Developing Countries: The Case of the Kenyan and City of Cape Town Open Data Initiatives’ 16 (2015) African Journal of Information and Communication pp. 26 et seq.

‘New hope for Africa? Copyright and access to knowledge in the digital age’ (2011) 13(3) Info 64 -74 

‘Copyright and education in Africa: Lessons on African copyright and access to knowledge’ 10 (2009-10) African Journal of Information and Communication pp. 37 et seq.

The ‘Fair Use’ Doctrine and the Implications of Digitising for the Doctrine from a South African Perspective 7 (2006) Southern African Journal of Information and Communication pp. 32 et seq.

Reports & Working Papers

Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA VIII) (2017), available at: http://www.openair.org.za/publications/intellectual-property-rights-and-innovation-assessing-regional-integration-in-africa-aria-viii/

Open Data in Developing Countries: Embedding Open Data Practice (2015), available at: http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ODDC-2-Embedding-Open-Data-Practice-FINAL.pdf

Knowledge & Innovation in Africa: Scenarios for the Future (2013), available at http://www.openair.org.za/images/Knowledge-Innovation-Africa-Scenarios-for-Future.pdf  

IP Watchlist (2010), Consumers International, [contributor]

Access to knowledge in South Africa: Country Study Version 2.0 (2009), edited by A. Rens and R. Kahn, [contributor]

African Copyright & Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Comparative Review of Research Findings (2010) [author]

African Copyright & Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Country Study “South Africa” (2009) [author]

African Copyright & Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Executive Policy Brief “South Africa” (2009) [author]

Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) 2009, Regional Report Africa [contributor]

South African Open Copyright Review (2009) [contributor]

Miscellaneous

IP Unit submission to the DTI concerning the Copyright Amendment Bill (2017), available at http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CopyrightBill2017_UCTsubmission072017.pdf

Joint Submission of Academics, Experts, Scholars and Pro-Access Advocates to the DTI concerning the Intellectual Property Consultative Framework (2016), available at http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Submission_IPUnit_IPFramework092016.pdf  

Joint Academic Submission to the DTI concerning the Copyright Amendment Bill (2015), available at http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SA-Bill-Joint-Academic-Comment-.pdf

IP Unit submission to the DTI concerning the Copyright Amendment Bill (2015), available at http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CopyrightAmendmentBill_IPUnitSubmission092015.pdf

Marrakesh Treaty – Implementation Guide South Africa (2015), available at http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IPUnit_MarrakeshGuideSA1.pdf

Creative Commons South Africa: Licensor Guidelines (2013), available at: http://ip-unit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CC-Guidelines.pdf

Summary of the Evolution, Current State, and Potential Future Developments of the Fair or Flexible Dealing Norms in South Africa that Allow the Use of Copyrighted Material, Especially in Documentary Films, Without Permission of the Copyright Holder Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP – American University, Washington, D.C.)

Information Sheet on Creative Commons “NC” and “ND” Restrictions (2008)

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Copyright Guideline Document (2007)

Copyright Law and Education: Copyright Audit (2007)

Document for Commonwealth Countries on Copyright Matters in Education (2005) Commonwealth of Learning

In the press (excerpt)

Copyright Amendment Bill in Parliament: Whose Right is it anyway? (03 August 2017) Daily Maverick, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-08-02-copyright-amendment-bill-in-parliament-whose-right-is-it-anyway/#.WYL0cFojG9Y

South African Government Conference Reveals View on Draft Copyright Bill
(28 September 2015) ip-watch, https://www.ip-watch.org/2015/08/28/south-african-government-conference-reveals-views-on-draft-copyright-bill/

Conference Looks at Public Interest in South Africa’s Draft Copyright Bill
(13 September 2015) ip-watch, https://www.ip-watch.org/2015/08/13/conference-looks-at-public-interest-in-south-africas-draft-copyright-bill/

Four Corners piracy sentence “draconian” (17 April 2014) htxt.africa, http://www.htxt.co.za/2014/04/17/four-corners-piracy-sentence-draconian/ (based on interview)

SA legal reform vital for global trade (18 February 2014) ITWeb, http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70949 (based on interview)

Killing spam softly: POPI in South Africa (15 July 2013) MyBroadband, http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/81759-killing-spam-softly-popi-in-south-africa.html (based on interview)

Outdated copyright law ‘blocks access by students’ (26 July 2010) Business Day  (based on an interview)

Copyright laws stifle education (23 July 2010) ITWeb article  (based on ACA2K reports)

Creative Commons – the big issue (2009) Techsmart Magazine (based on an interview)

ISP Role in Copyright Policing not yet on Africa’s Radar (2009) Washington Internet Daily (based on an interview)

Masters and Ph.D. theses

The implications of digitizing and the Internet for “fair use” in South Africa (2005), University of Cape Town [Masters thesis]

Safeguarding a fair copyright balance – contemporary challenges in a changing world: lessons to be learnt from a developing country perspective (2009), University of Cape Town [Ph.D. thesis]