Laugh it Off wins this round

2003-12-12 12:21

Cape Town - The satirical Cape Town T-shirt company Laugh it Off 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 Laugh it Off to put up R350 000 in security ahead of an appeal court case expected to be heard in 2004.

Laugh it Off 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.

Cleaver said however SAB had embarked on its litigation against Laugh it Off with eyes open, knowing the nature and extent of their business and its financial position, which was "admittedly not particularly strong".

Closing the door to Laugh it Off, which was a likely result of granting SAB's application, would deny Laugh it Off, simply by virtue of its financial position, a chance to have its dispute with SAB decided by a court of law.

Particularly important was that SAB did not demand security for costs until three months after Laugh it Off was granted leave to appeal, and only brought the court application two months after that, when the T-shirt company had already incurred substantial costs.

Cleave said the issues at stake in the case - which Laugh it Off maintains involves its constitutional right to freedom of expression - were important and novel and deserved a definitive judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The beer giant said in papers for this week's application that it was clear Laugh it Off would not be able to pay SABMiller's costs if the T-shirt company lost the appeal.

Laugh it Off's Justin Nurse said after Cleaver's judgement 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