Wegbreek to appeal judgment to find a new name

Established Cape Town publishing group, Ramsay Son & Parker, publishers of 16-year-old travel magazine Getaway, applied for an interdict to stop New Media and Media 24 from infringing Getaway's trademark or passing it off as being associated with Getaway, after New Media launched its Afrikaans travel magazine, Wegbreek last year.

In a special edition of MediaToolbox, specialist Editor, Herman Mason, explained why "Media24 didn't Getaway with Wegbreek"... The Cape High Court on Wednesday found that Wegbreek, the Afrikaans outdoor magazine and publishing sensation of 2004, published by Media24 through New Media, was a 'virtual translation' of its English opposition, Getaway, published by Ramsay, Son & Parker. Judge A M Motala found Media24 and New Media infringed on the trademark rights of RS&P. The judge interdicted the publishers of Wegbreek "from passing off their business or products as those of the 'Getaway' or any mark confusing or deceptively similar thereto, including the mark 'Wegbreek'."

Wegbreek was also ordered to drop 'Moegoe van die maand' from the magazine. Getaway publishes a feature titled 'Mug of the Month'. And all material bearing the mark 'Wegbreek' are to be delivered to RS&P for destruction, and Media24 must "remove all reference to the word 'Wegbreek' from all printed matter and material to which it has been applied whether as signage or otherwise." The domain name www.wegbreek.co.za must be deregistered. Legal costs are to be paid by Media24 and New Media.

"An examination of several issues of the two magazines reveals many similarities between them," wrote Judge Motala. "As I have found above, Wegbreek is virtually a translation of Getaway. Both are glossy colour publications of comparable size and weight. Both are aimed at the same readership. The contents of each, if translated, would quite appropriately fit into the other. They share many features. Although some of the
features such as the letters to the editors page are to be found in most magazines, one feature in Wegbreek, "Moegoe van die Maand" is a blatant copy of Getaway's "Mug of the Month" - and is almost plagiaristic. Furthermore, apart from the title and the language used, there is nothing to distinguish Wegbreek from Getaway."

Ramsay Son & Parker said the judgment should deter 'hostile' publishers from trademark infringement that is particularly threatening in a multilingual society.

All magazines had similar elements, Herselman said, but she told Business Day, that Wegbreek was an original product when it came to content. The publishers had planned to publish Wegbreek monthly from April. The magazine launched in April 2004 as a bimonthly. According to the June to September Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures, Wegbreek is selling an average of 58890 copies an issue and Herselman said last month that it had 13118 subscribers. Getaway's audited ABC circulation figure in the same period is 92334 copies an issue.

Sources: Business Day www.businessday.co.za; MediaToolbox www.mediatoolbox.co.za; Getaway www.getaway.co.za.