Laugh It Off, the brand parody company that has been locked in a dispute over freedom of expression versus trademark protection with international brewer SABMiller for the past two years, will have its day in the Constitutional Court next Tuesday.
At the heart of the legal argument is the parody specialists’ T-shirt ”Black Labour, White Guilt”.
Last August, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of SABMiller’s contention that the T-shirt is a trademark infringement rather than a legitimate form of expression, but Laugh It Off was granted leave to appeal. The Cape High Court had also found in favour of the brewer in April 2003.
This week, Laugh It Off co-founder Justin Nurse said: ”We don’t just have to win this for ourselves, but for all the artists in the country.”
Although the small media company made headlines with its T-shirts which parodied First National Bank and Coca-Cola, Laugh It Off offers a platform for alternative views through various publications, including its annual on South African youth culture and the Laugh It off Chronicles calendar.
The annual was listed as one of the 2004 festive season must-haves on Exclusive Books’s Publishers’ Choice list. However, a new send-up of the SABMiller brand Carling Black Label had to be dropped from the book and calendar at the eleventh hour, after an interdict application.