INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
Tongaat Hulett’s intellectual property is protected through
employment contracts and confidentiality agreements
and/or license agreements with external parties. These
agreements establish ownership of and rights to trademarks,
copyright, trade secrets, innovations and inventions resulting
from any dealings with the company. In the sugar operation, a
portfolio of patents is managed by a knowledge management
specialist in consultation with patent attorneys. Protection of
patentable ideas is achieved by immediately obtaining provisional
patents, with targeted national and international patenting.
Tongaat Hulett holds 13 patents registered in Australia,
Brasil, China, Colombia, Indonesia, India, Mauritius, Mexico,
South Africa and USA. It is a proprietor of 316 registered trademarks
in Australia, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, New Zealand, Phillipines,
South Africa, South Korea, Swaziland, Taiwan and the United Arab
Emirates. The company has 50 domain names registered to it.
Third party certifications
Tongaat Hulett continues to benchmark its performance against global best practices to ensure sustainable development in dealing with the broader sustainability issues incorporating SHE and food safety aspects. Operations subscribe to various
internationally-recognised management systems and/or specifications that include NOSA, OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001, ISO 9001, HACCP, FSSC 22000 and ISO 22000.
All operations are certified to either NOSA 5 Star systems or OHSAS 18001 covering occupational health and safety. Of the 19 operations, 15 are certified to the ISO 14001 environmental management system with another one currently going through a routine external surveillance review process to address issues of concern. Progress is being made to ensure that the remaining three operations are moved to the ISO 14001 system. A total of four out of five starch operations and two out of eight sugar packaging operations are certified to ISO 22000/HACCP/ FSSC 22000 food safety management systems. Plans are being implemented to ensure that all food handling operations fully subscribe to food safety management systems and therefore will achieve third party certification.
