A brief summation of the SAB vs. Laugh It Off judgement:

The judge found that, even though no direct evidence was submitted to show that SAB was harmed by the t-shirts that “tarnishment” (i.e. people looking unfavourably on SAB because of the t-shirts) was likely to occur.

“I have come to the conclusion that such use exceeds the limits of freedom of speech and expression…” says Justice Cleaver, because:

1. The Black Labour t-shirt exploits SAB unfairly, and for commercial gain.
2. No-one would buy LiO’s t-shirts if they didn’t use SAB’s trademark.
3. The Black Labour t-shirt is “merely a lampoon of [SAB's] trademarks” and not a broader social commentary. It doesn’t talk about South African society in general, but rather just about South African Breweries.
4. An acceptable parody must be a “harmless, clean pun”. “Its lampooning or parodying of the applicant’s marks is not a “harmless, clean pun which merely parodies or pokes fun” at the respondent’s marks. It goes further than that by introducing the race factor, something which our constitution and our new democracy are at pains to avoid,” writes Justice Cleaver.
5. In fact, the Black Labour t-shirt “can be said to border on hate speech”.

Laugh It Off feels that, without getting into the legal nitty-gritty, the judgement implies that any parody that has any real meaning (as opposed to just being a joke) is illegal. Also, anything which talks about South Africa’s racist past is unacceptable in our new democracy.

We have every intention of appealing against the judgement, which we feel, if allowed to stand, would be a blow to freedom of speech and of artistic expression in South Africa. Laugh It Off will continue to satirise South African culture, and challenge society in general in original, thought-provoking and unconventional ways.

In 1970, The Clash wrote “I fought the law and the law won”. We feel that we’ve fought the law, we’ve lost round one, but whether or not one man’s judgement will be Laugh It Off’s death-knell remains to be seen.

In the mean time we will keep you posted as the events unfold.

Thanks,

Laugh it Off.

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