Shirt maker Laught It Off finally puts brewer SABMiller on the mat - wins copyright case

30 May '05

2 min read

In a unanimous judgement, shirt maker Laugh It Off was allowed to continue using similar sounding message of a brewer owning the Carling Black Label, on its T-shirts by Justice Dikgang Moseneke of the constitutional court. No infringement of copyright was noticed, and neither the claim of the aggrieved party (company) that the T-shirtmaker had earned monetary gains from the use of the said message substitution: "America's lusty, lively beer, Carling Black Label beer, enjoyed by men around the world" by "Black Labour White Guilt, Africa's lusty lively exploitation since 1652, no regard given worldwide," went against the Trademark act, said the judgment. According to Justice Moseneke said SAB could not even prove that the T-shirts had harmed the Carling Black Label brand, in financial terms. Earlier, the dispute arose back in 2001 when SAB found that Laugh It Off was making and marketing T-shirts bearing familiar sounding message. The company pleaded for restraining Laugh It Off from using the trademark. It was then that Laugh It Off filed a case in the Supreme Court of Appeal, that judged in SAB's favour on grounds that the T-shirt's message gained unfair advantage for the shirt maker causing harm to SAB's trademark. Not to be laid down, Laugh It Off knocked the doors of the Constitutional Court, which then ruled in T-shirt makers favor and ordered SAB reimburse legal costs to the shirt maker. A happy and a relieved man, Justin Nurse, founder of Laugh It Off expressedhaphappiness about the case's outcome. He informed that his website would carry online auction of about 1,000 Black Labour T-shirts, the proceeds of which, would go to an anti-alcohol abuse charity.