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The navigation of intellectual property rights is complex and full of conflicting interests. However, the MTA SA simply provides that intellectual property is dealt with by “relevant laws” and by “third-party agreements to the extent that there are” ([13] point 12). It is important to note that saTA provides that the MTA will embody and form the “comprehensive agreement” between the parties, which would exclude third-party agreements ([13] point 17.1). Therefore, all relevant agreements should be attached to the MTA by third parties and their content should be explicitly included in the MTA. In the absence of this measure, a one-third agreement is probably not binding on the other part of an MTA. The only way to bring the MTA SA into compliance with existing law is to interpret the nominal property provided by the RPA as nominal property without any right to human biological material or related data, i.e. only on behalf of the RPA. This may be a technical question, but it should be remembered that the absence of rights to human biological material or related data does not mean that the research participant has no rights to these materials and data. For example, the participant may have rights to the research organization to which the human biological material was given and to its successor in the title. These rights may include the right to be kept informed of research on human biological material, the right to refuse the use of human biological material for new research beyond the original project, the right to demand the destruction of human biological material, etc.
The fact is that a researcher`s rights in the research conducted on the human biological material he or she gave do not depend on owning the given human biological material, but can be agreed separately and in detail. As explained in the background, the protection of personal data is governed by a specially designed status, POPIA [21]. The SA MTA can complement POPIA and facilitate its implementation. In cases where a supplier in South Africa intends to transmit human biological material or related data to a recipient in a foreign country and the foreigner does not provide an “adequate level of protection for the processing of personal data,” the supplier must obtain prior authorization from the information regulator for the proposed transfer ([21] Section 57,1.1.d)).