Tumelo (Mary) Mashabela

INFORMATION JUSTICE FELLOW, ARCADIA PROGRAM

Tumelo is a dynamic registered patent attorney in South Africa with extensive skills in various aspects of intellectual property, corporate and commercial law. Tumelo holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, an LLB degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA), and an LLM in Intellectual Property and Technology Law from AUWCL. With her vast knowledge and experience, Tumelo established her own IP law firm in April 2016, Tshaya Mashabela Attorneys. Tumelo is passionate about creating IP awareness and has done so over the years. To this end, she has nurtured and mentored aspiring young IP legal practitioners who are from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. Tumelo served 2 terms as an Advisory Board Member for the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) of South Africa, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). She served as a non-executive Director for UJInvnt (Pty) Ltd, an IP commercialization arm of the University of Johannesburg. She was an independent contractor contracted with the UNISA to develop content for an IP management post-graduate diploma. She has been a moderator for the Patent Examination Board – SA Patent Law and Practice module since 2019. Tumelo is also a moderator for Intellectual Property, New Technologies, and Innovation (Patent Law) for LLM offered by the University of Pretoria. Tumelo has been providing lectures at WIPO South Africa Summer School on Intellectual Property and Transfer of Technology hosted by WIPO in collaboration with DSI, NIPMO, and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) for almost a decade. 

She can be reached at tumelom@tm-attorneys.africa.