Legal blog Afro Leo recently took a closer look at the difficulties faced by small companies in defending trade mark infringement claims. Is there a case for the introduction of legislation against unlawful trade mark infringement threats? The issue is of such import and relevance to our industry that MarkLives decided to reprint the post.
Category archives: Marketing
FNB, PayPal caught with their pants down
It seems likely that PayPal will finally arrive on South African shores in April thanks to the efforts of FNB. News leaked through a Moneyweb reader comment and was quickly picked up by Twitter users and then by members of the media (who mostly missed the original reader comment on Moneyweb, including, surprisingly, Moneyweb itself).
Helen Zille hits below the belt
Talk about cheap politicking. The DA must be taking notes from those megawatt bullshitters over at the ANCYL. The media, with some help from the DA, decided that to produce a kid Jacob Zuma had to have had unprotected sex. Hate to break this to you but sometimes condoms break. It happens. Unless Helen Zille, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, happens to be a webcam buddy with either of the two people involved I suspect it is unlikely she should know what really went down. So to speak.
Kissing is not a crime
e.TV is “clearly a crime-kisser”, according to our gung-ho police commissioner Bheki Cele, for broadcasting a segment in which two criminals held forth on their plans to do what criminals do best, rob people and shoot anybody interfering.
Vodacom hit by Nepotism scandal. Brought to you by Vodacom.
Vodacom hit by Nepotism scandal – Sunday Times
Congo partner accuses Vodacom of fraud – TechCentral
Internet reaching 10% of South Africans
The number of South African Internet users has passed the 5-million mark for the first time, finally breaking through the 10% mark in Internet penetration for the country. This is the key finding of the Internet Access in South Africa 2010 study conducted by World Wide Worx.
Kyk nou net
Afrikaans language TV channel KykNet is suing strip club Teazers for a billboard using the words ‘Kyk Net’. Some IP lawyers are getting away with blatant misuse of the spirit of IP law (not the kindest spirit to start off with but still) by issuing threats against businesses using generic words like ‘orange’ (as a recent ludicrous example) , or generic phrases like ‘Kyk Net,’ in their marketing material.
Stoner sings our national anthem (stoned?)
Stories worth a read this morning: Brown-envelope journalism [M&G Online] A shareholder in a top media services company has alleged in a taped conversation with former Western Cape premier Lynne Brown that Cape Town journalists are being paid cash “in brown envelopes” to write and influence stories for political ends. [I for one expect nothing …
Continue reading “Stoner sings our national anthem (stoned?)”
Size is not everything
It is tempting to attribute Top Brand status to brands that are simply big. After all, if a brand is big, surely it is doing something right? Yes, of course it is doing something right – but the key thing is to determine what that is – brands can be big for many reasons.
Lurking about at the Loeries
For a Loeries virgin, the annual weekend of awards and debauchery was something of an eye-opener. The work was inspiring. The dress code was suitably kooky. And the awards ceremonies were big. Certainly bigger than expected. With uber-graphics, pounding audio and a massive, people-dwarfing stage.
The response from the attendees was less so.