Laputo Loses Copywight War Against Dladleng Entertainment

December 6, 2017

2 minutes read

A copywright war recently erupted between Laputo the promoter and Dladleng Entertainment over the ownership of Gaabo Motho Festival logo.

Mmegi Nespaper did an investigation and have since found out that Dladleng Ent are the rightful owners of the logo and the event.

While it was Laputo who broke the news on Facebook claiming to own the logo of the festival and further accusing former associate Oscar Dlamini Thebe of registering a watermarked logo behind his back, Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) awareness and communications manager, Marietta Magashula told Mmegi in an interview that they register logos as submitted by a client.

“We assume that the way the client submits a logo is the way that he or she wants to present it to the market. Our Trademark Examiners only examine the logo to ensure that it meets the requirements of the Industrial Property Act, including assessing if it is not similar to those already registered,” she explained. Magashula clarified that Gaabo Motho logo that has stirred controversy did pass the examination and was duly registered.

Laputo said in a previous interview that he wants a court order for Dladleng Entertainment not to use his logo, but Showbiz managed to get hold of a High Court order dated December 2, 2016. The case between Laputo and Dladleng Entertainment Centre (Pty) Ltd was before Justice Michael Leburu in Lobatse and it was ordered that the respondent (Molale) is interdicted from exploiting and using the applicant’s (Dladleng) registered trademark (Gaabo Motho Music Festival). The court also ordered that Molale surrender to Dladleng all the merchandise manufactured that bears the latter’s registered trademark. Molale was also ordered to deactivate a Facebook page created using the applicant’s registered trademark.

Furthermore, Laputo presented a certificate on Facebook to show why he is the rightful copyright holder of the logo but his certificate outlines that he owns the right to a charity event called Gaabo Motho while his counterparts presented a certificate showing that they are registered owners of Gaabo Motho festival, which also bears the sought after logo.

The event scheduled for Christmas Eve at Dladleng Recreational Park in Moshupa will be headlined by South African artists; DJ Tira, Naak Musiq, Dr Malinga and Sun El Music man of Akanamali fame.