The satirical Cape Town T-shirt company Laugh It Off (LIO) has won the latest round of its court battle with multinational beer giant SABMiller.
Cape High Court Judge Roger Cleaver on Friday rejected with costs a bid by SABMIller to force LIO to put up R350 000 in security ahead of an appeal court case expected to be heard in 2004.
LIO is seeking to overturn a Cape High Court ruling earlier this year that one of its satirical T-shirts, with the logo ”Black labour, white guilt”, infringed SABMiller’s Carling Black Label trademark.
The beer giant said in papers for this week’s application that it was clear LIO would not be able to pay SABMiller’s costs if the T-shirt company lost the appeal.
LIO’s Justin Nurse said after Cleaver’s judgement, the text of which was not immediately available, that he was ”very satisfied” with the outcome.
The application had been nothing but a ”cheap attempt” by SABMiller to prevent the appeal being heard.
”This case had had several twists and turn, and there will be more to come,” he said. ”If we can get the appeal heard we are confident of overturning the original judgement.”
Nurse was presented with a bottle of Black Label by a wellwisher immediately after the judgment was handed down. – Sapa