Who owns Madiba’s name?
Denise Nicholson sent me this News24 article about our Madiba’s impending trademark registration of “Nelson Mandela”, his clan name “Madiba”, his Xhosa name “Rolihlahla” as well as his prison number 46664.
I can understand how the man wants to control who uses his name, but this remark from Madiba’s lawyer, Don MacRobert, I do not understand. According to the article, MacRobert ‘estimates that the foundation has incurred losses of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in potential revenues from private merchandising using the Mandela name or portraits.’
This ‘lost revenue’ argument has been used often in intellectual property debates (especially by the music industry) but I, for one, can’t understand why. Is Madiba in the business of making Tshirts, setting up panel beating shops or selling art? Will this mean that the (mostly struggling) artists that use our hero’s image on Tshirts and mugs and posters won’t be able to use his face and name in freedom without going through a long, expensive process of obtaining ‘permission’?
Is the Nelson Mandela Foundation saying that they will respond to the obvious need of South African consumers to purchase products and services relating to the Madiba ‘brand’? Will the Foundation sell Tshirts and posters and artwork and crafts with his name and his image in order to satisfy the need of the public to enjoy the image of our hero? And when the terrible day comes that Madiba dies, will we have to turn to lawyers to interpret the wishes of the man to remain an icon of freedom in South Africa?
So many questions. And no easy answers. I just hope that this case doesn’t follow the trend of so many others. Che Guevara’s image and name, I presume, were never trademarked - that’s why he remains so prevalent in public consciousness to this day (see this cool site). I hope that Madiba’s image will remain powerful too, but if protection and enforcement of his ‘brand’ is too restrictive, our children’s children may only hear about the man in their history lessons rather than being reminded of him while sipping Oros at lunchtime.
November 18th, 2004 at 2:37 pm
guess they need that sort of cash from your struggling artists to maintain their palatial office complexes (just check out his children’s foundation at the corner of oxford and riviera… complete with fountain in the garden). surely this must be very expensive to maintain and is probably reflective of salaries paid to staff slumming it under such conditions…
November 18th, 2004 at 5:23 pm
Who owns Madiba’s name?
Madiba’s name is for EVERYBODY !!!
for you, for me, for SENEGAL,for Africa, for all the world.
Madiba “NELSON MANDELA” is for all the human beings
Madiba is not only a person , he is a symbol
Madiba symbolise FREEDOM
AMANDLA !!!
November 22nd, 2004 at 8:04 pm
Is this the whole story? Is it just about money? Or is there a concern,
a legitimate concern about the appropriation of Madiba image not for the
purposes of creativity, but to lend legitimacy to organisations and people
who have not been endorsed by Madiba, but want people to think that they have?
November 25th, 2004 at 9:31 am
Over the past few days, I’ve noticed the use of Madiba’s name in association with such a large number of products and services, that I can imagine how important it was for the Foundation to excercise some degree of control. I still believe that there needs to be more balance in the way that we excercise the rights to protect our ‘brand’. Creative Commons still hasn’t found the best way to do this - the only uses that we currently specify are for ‘non-commercial’ or ‘commercial’ use, but perhaps we need to go further in specifying what purpose people are able to use the materials for. Sure, there would be debates (such as those in the LIO case about ‘why’ LIO decided to embark on their anti-logo campaign) but this would hopefully rule out someone’s image being used in a Nazi website, for example.
November 25th, 2004 at 4:03 pm
Just like what he said when he was here last ( in 1994 the day when he visited Morogoro, Tanzania
East Africa to thank the people for hosting the first ANC OFFICE outside South
Africa; he said “I L O V E Y O U ALL”. Our response is the same, “WE LOVE HIM TOO”. sO WE DO NOT EXPECT ANY LAW TO KEEP US AWAY FROM LOVING HIM FOREVER.