Entrepeneur to fight for freedom of speech
September 27, 2004 Edition 1
Estelle Ellis
Special Writer
In Justin Nurse's dreams, the five judges who dismissed brand rebels Laugh it Off's case about trademark parody will each receive a calendar at Christmas time.
"It would be Laugh it Off's free- speech week. The judges would read it and they would finally understand what we are trying to say."
It has been a bad week for the young Cape Town entrepreneur since the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed Laugh it Off's appeal and refused to set aside an interdict, obtained by beer giant SABMiller, against the sale of T-shirts parodying the Black Label trademark.
Laugh it Off had for some time sold a T-shirt sporting a similar trademark to that of Black Label beer, but the words read: Black Labour, White Guilt.
In their judgment on September 16, a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal said that what Laugh it Off had done was not about the right to freedom of expression, but the abuse of freedom of expression.
They also said Laugh it Off could "shout their message from the rooftops" - but could not sell it.
The only good news so far, Nurse said, was that the fans of the wacky T-shirts could keep on wearing them.
"We need to make people understand that a brand as an entity is a statement in itself. What we say in response to the brand is also a statement - it does not matter if it is parody or satire. It is exercising freedom of speech.
"We sell social commentary - we don't sell T-shirts. If it was about T-shirts, we would not have taken it this far. The judgment gave no recognition to that. It is very disheartening.
"It is one thing to be attacked by corporates who are concerned about protecting their trademarks; it is another to be attacked by the judiciary.
"It left us with a sense that there is very little acknowledgement of us doing something positive ... It was very hard to pick ourselves up again."
Nurse said they were expecting another batch of lawyer's letters in their postbox following the appeal.
"A lot of corporates waited to see the outcome of this case."
He said they were considering an appeal to the Constitutional Court. According to the rules, this must be done within 15 days.
In the same 15 days, a whole lot of Laugh it Off's projects must go to print.
"We are trying to run a media company here," Nurse said. "We still have an obligation to all those young authors we promised to publish. The appeal is a major bummer in terms of time," he said.
But, Nurse added, they were taking the appeal very seriously.
"Up to now our case has been argued mainly in terms of trademark law. Going to the Constitutional Court is our chance to argue for freedom of expression."
But, he said, it was not all doom and gloom: "We have a number of established people, like Pieter-Dirk Uys and Patricia de Lille, who will appear in our calendar.
"I think the tide will turn. People will accept that we have an important role to play to put social commentary out there."
eel.co.za
