SOUTH AFRICA: SABMiller t-shirts no laughing matter

SABMiller's view that its labels are sacrosanct has found favour in the Cape Town High Court, when a judge did not laugh off a T-shirt manufacturer's trademark infringement of the brewer's Black Label brand. "Black Labour - White Guilt" was blazoned across a red T-shirt with the distinctive Black Label emblem as well as the strap line "Africa's lusty lively exploitation since 1652, no regard given worldwide."

April 17, 2003

SABMiller’s view that its labels are sacrosanct has found favour in the Cape Town High Court, when a judge did not laugh off a T-shirt manufacturer’s trademark infringement of the brewer’s Black Label brand.

“Black Labour – White Guilt” was blazoned across a red T-shirt with the distinctive Black Label emblem as well as the strap line “Africa’s lusty lively exploitation since 1652, no regard given worldwide.”

Justice Roger Cleaver slapped a restraining order on the Cape Town-based Laugh It Off T Shirt company from selling the items and instructed them to pay all legal costs.

The three owners of the company, have vowed to take the matter as far as the Constitutional Court.