Our Staff

*Alan J.S. Dunlop
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Alan holds mechanical engineering and law degrees. He is a registered professional engineer, a registered patent lawyer in South Africa, Canada and Malawi, and was the President of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law.
Alan's current activities encompass all aspects of intellectual property, from drafting patent specifications and design applications to copyright, trade mark and unlawful competition advice and licensing contracts.

A major part of his practice is conducting patent litigation in the Patent Court and on appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal. His special interest is design law, he is the Reporter on the FICPI CET2 committee, Chairs the S.A. Design Law committee, and was a national Council member of Design South Africa. Alan is chairman of the Judges Panel of the annual Design Prototype Awards of the Design institute of the SABS and SAIIPL. Alan is the author of numerous papers on intellectual property law and related topics, worked in the Statutory Advisory Committee in drafting amendments to the Copyright Act, the Designs Act and was chairman of the drafting committee of the Petty Patents Act.

Alan has worked in the steel industry, gaining valuable experience relating to steel manufacturing technologies and general engineering and computer technology.

* Alan Dunlop has retired from practice but is still of Counsel from time to time. Please contact Hahn & Hahn on our central e-mail for any enquiries

Victor Williams
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Victor has mechanical engineering and law degrees, is an admitted attorney and registered patent attorney. He is the president of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law. Victor moved to Hahn & Hahn Inc from Adams & Adams and is the head of our Trade Marks department. He is also involved in litigation and valuations in all areas of intellectual property. Victor is an IP consultant to Eversheds and is a senior adjudicator of the Institutes' alternate dispute resolution provider for settling domain name disputes. Lastly, Victor is the Financial Director of Hahn & Hahn Inc.

Janusz Luterek
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Janusz's qualifications include a B.Eng (Chemical) and a B.Proc. He is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa, a patent attorney and a registered professional engineer. Janusz is also a member of several professional, industrial and legal societies. Janusz moved from Adams & Adams to join Hahn & Hahn Inc in 1997. In 2001 Janusz passed the Australian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorneys patent drafting examination.

Before joining the profession, Janusz worked in the chemical, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries for a number of years. Janusz's current activities include patent drafting, litigation, searching, providing opinions on novelty and infringement of patents and designs, and prosecuting local and foreign patent and design applications. Janusz is fluent in English, Afrikaans and Polish and reads Czech. Janusz also acts as an IP consultant to Eversheds. He serves on the EXCO of AIPPI South Africa.

Janusz’s technical fields of specialization include petrochemical engineering, food and beverage engineering, pharmaceuticals, catalysis, IT and business method related patents while also handling some mechanical and electrical patent applications.

Clyde Michael
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Clyde holds degrees in electronic engineering and law. He is a qualified attorney and patent attorney. He moved from Adams & Adams to join Hahn & Hahn in 2000.Clyde has been involved in patent and design searching, providing opinions on novelty and infringement of patents and designs and drafting and prosecuting local and foreign patent and design applications since the beginning of 1997.

Pieter Venter
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Pieter holds B.Sc., B.Sc.(Hons), M.Sc. degrees in chemistry and an LLB degree. He is a qualified attorney and patent attorney. He moved from Adams & Adams to join Hahn & Hahn in 2001. Pieter is interested in all aspects of intellectual property law and is involved in patent litigation and the drafting and prosecution of local and foreign patent applications.

Youngmi Ra
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Youngmi graduated with a B.Sc. (Biol) and an M.Sc. (Microbiology) in South Korea. Later Youngmi qualified as a Korean patent attorney and practised for 13 years at three of the largest patent and law offices in Korea before moving to Hahn & Hahn Inc in South Africa. Youngmi specialises in filing and prosecution of patent applications worldwide and has extensive international litigation experience in the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields.

Vanessa Lawrance
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Vanessa holds B.Comm and LLB degrees; the final semester of the latter degree was completed at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. She also holds diplomas in Corporate Law and Drafting and Interpretation of Contracts. Vanessa moved from Adams & Adams to join Hahn & Hahn Inc in 2002. Vanessa is a Trade Mark Practitioner and is primarily involved with Trade Mark litigation, Copyright and Internet matters. She is a qualified Notary and also an accredited Assessor and Mediator.

Jabulani Mthombeni
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Jabulani joined Hahn & Hahn Inc in April 2006 and has B AppSc (Biochem) and Msc (Bioinformatics) LLB. Prior to joining Hahn and Hahn in 2006, Jabulani worked in Academia as researcher as well as a Microbiologist for a SABMiller International . He has completed his LLB degree and the Patent Board exams. Jabulani's practice includes patent drafting, filing and prosecution throughout Africa.

Elke Harck
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Elke Harck is the Patent Administration Manager for Hahn & Hahn Inc and Eversheds which position Elke has held for 23 years. Elke lived in Germany and the USA before coming to South Africa and is fluent in both German and English

Dorothy Imrie
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Dorothy joined Hahn & Hahn Inc in 2002 and holds the position of Local Trade Marks Manager. In particular, Dorothy oversees trade mark filings, searches and prosecution in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland