ANC forges ahead in 'spear spat' with Jacob Zuma’s MK
Intellectual property lawyer Brian Wimpey helps unpack the ANC's trademark legal case against the Jacob Zuma’s MK party.
Former President Jacob Zuma addresses members of the media under the banner of new party uMkhontho We Sizwe on 16 December 2023. Picture: Kayleen Morgan/Eyewitness News
The African National Congress (ANC) is forging ahead in its legal bid to ban Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) from using the name or associated logo.
uMkhonto weSizwe was the ANC's paramilitary wing during apartheid; Zuma's party uses the name and a strikingly similar logo.
With former ANC leader and President Jacob Zuma at its helm, the political 'new kid on the block' hopes to challenge the ANC in the forthcoming national elections.
The ANC says the use of the name and logo by the new party is misleading.
Intellectual property lawyer Brian Wimpey says the entire case rests on whether the 'device' of a man with a shield and spear or the slogan 'uMkhonto weSizwe' are registered by the ANC.
"It really is about whether [the ANC] has registered uMkhonto weSizwe and that device of the warrior... as a trademark."
- Brian Wimpey, Lawyer - Bredenkamp Intellectual Property Attorneys
"If it is, assuming that it is registered in the name of the ANC, then the device that the MK party is using is, in terms of trademark law, confusingly similar and the ANC would have the right to interdict MK from using that."
- Brian Wimpey, Lawyer - Bredenkamp Intellectual Property Attorneys
But, on the other hand...
"If MK wanted to defend it, they might try to say that the ANC doesn't have exclusive rights to that - and that's another issue."
- Brian Wimpey, Lawyer - Bredenkamp Intellectual Property Attorneys
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