Spoor & Fisher

Trade mark Enforcement

Herman Blignaut is a Trade Mark Practitioner with an LLB (cum laude). He is an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and a Notary Public.
Herman has 18 years of experience in trade mark, copyright and unlawful competition litigation, including trade mark oppositions, trade mark and copyright infringement, domain names, company and close corporation name objections, trade mark searches and prosecution.

Herman studied at the University of Pretoria and obtained his LLB degree during 2001.  Having completed his articles of clerkship with Spoor & Fisher between 2003 and 2004, he was admitted as an Attorney of the High Court and Notary Public in 2005.  Herman became a Partner at Spoor & Fisher on 1 March 2009.  His practice focuses on contentious trade mark, unlawful competition, copyright, regulatory and advertising matters where he has acted on behalf of various clients before numerous divisions of South African High Courts (both as first instance and full bench appeals), the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court.  Herman has served on the editorial advisory board of Food Review magazine and acquired specific skills and expertise on ambush marketing issues with a well-publicized international sports tournament hosted by South Africa during 2010.

Professional activities

Author of South African chapter: Cross-Border Copyright Licensing – Law and Practice, 2018 • Author of South African chapter: Copyright Litigation, 2010 and 2015 • Author of copyright chapter in Dean & Dyer: Introduction to Intellectual Property Law (Oxford University Press), 2014 • Author of Registered Design & Trade Mark Protection: The Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business (Centre for International Legal Studies), 2006 • Contributor of numerous articles to various publications, including Intellectual Property magazine and Without Prejudice, 2007-2018 • Lecturer and examiner on copyright law and practice: SAIIPL, 2007-2018 • Speaker at various international conferences, including Innovation Summit, SARIMA Conference and INTA Table Topic, 2009-2014

Market Recognition

Band 3 – Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers, 2016-present • Listed – World Trade Review 1000, present

English, Afrikaans  

Fellow of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL).

Member of the Law Society of Northern Provinces (LSNP). Member of the Legal Practice Council (LPC).

LLB (Cum Laude). Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and Notary Public.

Herman enjoys the outdoors and participates in recreational and competition clay pigeon shooting.  An avid traveller, he specifically enjoys attending sports events (such as rugby, soccer, Formula 1 racing, cycling) as spectator locally and abroad.