Adams & Adams welcomes Dr Joanne van Harmelen as new partner
Adams & Adams is very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Joanne van Harmelen as a new partner. Joanne joins Adams & Adams in March 2024, bringing her expertise as patent attorney in life sciences, chemical inventions and plant breeders’ rights to strengthen the firm’s highly regarded patent, design and PBR legal services.
“We are delighted to welcome Joanne to Adams & Adams. Her extensive experience in intellectual property law makes her an asset to the team. We look forward to her contribution to our patent practice and supporting our clients with her knowledge of patent and PBR drafting, filing, prosecution and commercialization in the African IP landscape,” says Janice Galvad, partner and chairperson of the patent department at Adams & Adams.
Joanne was admitted as a South African patent attorney in 2009 and holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Vaccine Development from the University of Cape Town and an LLB degree from UNISA. She has been consistently recognised for her exceptional work by a number of international publications including, Legal 500, Best Lawyers®, Managing IP, IAM Patent 1000 and IAM Global Leaders.
“I am very excited about joining Adams & Adams. Working with such a distinguished team is a fantastic opportunity in which I can bring my own IP experience to help maintain and build on the impressive Adams & Adams patent practice and add value to clients, colleagues and the firm,” says Joanne.
Adams & Adams provides clients with a full range of patent, design and PBR legal services in South Africa, throughout the rest of Africa and in all other foreign jurisdictions. These services include patent, design and PBR drafting, filing and prosecution; commercialisation and licensing advice; litigation; as well as search, recordal and renewal services. The firm’s patent services cover a wide variety of technical fields including life sciences, chemical engineering, chemistry, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, plastics and polymer technology, computer technology and civil engineering.
For more information, please contact Janice Galvad (Janice.Galvad@adams.africa) or Pieter Visagie (Pieter.Visagie@adams.africa).

A SANGUINARY PROBLEM
Similarly to the British Patents Act and the European Patent Convention, the South African Patents Act excludes from patentability a method of treatment by therapy of the animal or human body. A quest...
June 18 2025

New South African Plant Breeders’ Rights law comes into effect
South Africa’s new Plant Breeders’ Rights Act 12 of 2018 (new Act) has, by proclamation in the Government Gazette of 6 June 2025, been deemed to have been in effect since 1 June 2025. Thus, the Pl...
June 09 2025

Awareness of Fraudulent Communications
Adams & Adams Fraudulent Impersonation Alert It has come to our attention that fraudulent emails (particularly from a Microsoft Outlook account of adams-adams-attorneys@outlook.com) are being sent...
May 21 2025