Johnathan Paoli
The ruling party has officially sent a letter of demand to the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party requesting that the organisation change its name and logo by the end of the month.
This comes after ANC president Jacob Zuma endorsed the MK party at a press briefing last week calling on ANC members to cast their votes for this party in the 2024 National General Elections as a way to rescue the liberation movement.
In a letter sent through their legal team, the ANC said the MK logo has been used as well as intimately linked to the party for decades.
“Our client has used its trademark for decades prior to its registration and assignment, and has therefore acquired a strong reputation in the market,” the letter read.
The party said that the MK logo similarly used the same colours of black, green and yellow and that despite the different positions of the spear, the brand still proves confusing in relation to identification by the voters.
In addition, the letter of demand maintained that the purpose behind the similarities was to take unfair advantage of the social capital of the ANC’s armed wing in bad faith and be detrimental to the historical character of the organisation.
The governing party also made a case for how it used the name MK from its inception in 1961, including its recent acquisition of the trademark from a non-profit, Legacy Projects.
Last week ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula announced that the party had initiated litigation against a new party named after its disbanded armed wing, uMkhonto weSizwe.
ANC veteran Mavuso Msimang had previously reiterated that the MK trademark belonged to the ruling party and that Zuma should feel ashamed.
“I think it’s real abuse of a trademark that he knows belongs to the ANC and not to some faction that is dissatisfied,” Msimang said.
Legal experts said that even if the ANC doesn’t have legal rights to the name, it can still prove that it is inextricably linked to it, by means of a concept known as ‘passing off’, in which a third party attempts to benefit off the goodwill of a long-used brand.
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