Merlene Engelbrecht
Senior Associate, Spoor & Fisher South Africa, Cape Town
m.engelbrecht@spoor.com 
+ 27 21 673 4421 
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Merlene Engelbrecht is a Trade Mark Practitioner and has a BA (Value & Policy Studies) from Stellenbosch University and an LLB from UNISA. She is an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.
Merlene specialises in both domestic and international trade mark prosecution, as well as trade mark licensing, assignments, and portfolio audits. Her expertise extends to handling complex disputes related to trade marks, copyright, unlawful competition, and domain names.
On the commercial intellectual property front, Merlene frequently conducts comprehensive IP due diligence investigations for high-value commercial transactions.
Industry Associations
- Fellow – South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL)
- Member – Legal Practice Council (LPC)
- Member – INTA Brands and Innovation Committee (2024/2025)
Market Recognition
- Legal 500 EMEA, Leading Associate, 2024-present
- Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars – Rising Stars, 2024-present
Professional Activities
- Article, ‘Trade mark infringements are tricky’: Business Day, 2019
- Article, ‘UKIPO puts a cork in it’: Without Prejudice, 2020
- Article, ‘The IP laws of the metaverse and beyond’: IT-online, 2022
- Article, ‘Important things that advertising and marketing professionals need to know about copyright’: The Media Online, 2022
- Article, ‘Bye-bye Twitter Birdie – gone but still under trade mark’: Bizcommunity.com, 2023
- Guest speaker at the South African Medical Research Council’s World IP Day event on the topic “Internal Big Data”, 2021
- Guest lecturer IP short course, Ambush Marketing: Stellenbosch University, 2023 and 2024
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