A judge in Grenada has made a ruling on an intellectual property injunction that, if it were successful, could have had wide implications on persons or companies who engaged in similar marketing initiatives to attract consumers.
An injunction filed by Nimrod Olliverre and Egbert Romain, the promoters of ‘White in the Moonlight’ show, against others believed to be involved in the promotions of ‘Outrageous Pure White’ show, wanted the court to refrain the promoters from using certain words in their marketing/promotional initiatives, because these initiatives were ambush marketing tactics which were confusing its traditional patrons.
The complainants not only asked the court to stop the defendants from using certain words such as ‘White, Traditional, Moonlight, Mud and Water’ in their advertisements in electronic advertising, but to stop all form of promotions and also to compensate them for loss of income that will result by not having their regular 6,000 to 10,000 patrons.
On Tuesday, Judge Mohammed at the St George’s Number Three High Court dismissed applications on four of the five persons named in the injunction, on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to prove they were directly involved in the promotion of the show. Those who had the matter dismissed against them were Daniel ‘Diego’ Peters, Kurt Ross, Angus Steele and Dwayne ‘Chubby’ Lewis. They are to also be compensated the relevant legal fees.
The accusation that the ‘Outrageous Pure White’ promoter Aaron ‘Revo’ Thomas of AK Promotions, used the ambush marketing technique of ‘passing off’, was also dismissed.
On Wednesday morning Thomas said that with the injunction dismissed he will now proceed with getting all the logistics in place to ensure that patrons who choose to attend the ‘Outrageous Pure White’ show experience the best show ever. “We did not know what the judgment would be, so though we were proceeding with the planning, we were waiting until the court hearing so that all the final logistics will be put in place,” he explained.
Both shows will be on Carnival Saturday night. The ‘Outrageous Pure White’ show will be at Moonlight City, La Poterie in St Andrew; while the ‘White in the Moonlight’ show will be held at Progress Park, St Andrew.
By Linda Straker
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Correction: A previously posted version of this article incorrectly stated that Nimrod Ollivierre of “White in the Moonlight” was represented by Lisa Taylor — but in fact Mr. Ollivierre was represented by Francis Paul who made the allegation of “passing off”. Lisa Taylor represented Angus Steele and Aaron Thomas, and therefore successfully argued on behalf of Mr Thomas, the promoter of “Outrageous Pure White” at Moonlight City, that her client was not engaged in “passing off” as alleged.
