Spokenpriestess first launched her Afri-Sauti Karaoke in 2020 during lockdown. Milk Stout only launched their campaign this year. Picture: Keegan Moffatt (Supplied)
DJ and creative entrepreneur Spokenpriestess has accused Castle Milk Stout of intellectual property infringement of her karaoke show concept and has issued the brand a letter of cease and desist.
Real name Precious Nkadimeng, Spokenpriestess first launched her Afri-Sauti Karaoke in 2020 during lockdown when she asked a few friends to celebrate Africa Month by sending her videos of themselves singing African ditties.
Four years later, the Afri-Sauti Karaoke has grown to be a fully-fledged monthly event where people perform African songs on stage at a chosen venue every first Friday.
Last month, the alcohol brand launched its Afrikaraoke Street Challenge which is eerily similar to Spokenpriestess’ karaoke concept.
Spokenpriestess said she first came across the brand’s campaign at the end of August when followers of her event thought she was working together with the beer brand.
“I came across an event invite bearing the same name and a description that sounded like what I do,” Spokenpriestess told The Citizen.
“Followers of Afri-Sauti Karaoke events who were aware that the name ‘Afrikaraoke’ is also a name that we use and continue to use sent inquiries asking whether I was hosting the event in partnership with Milk Stout.”
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The description used by Castle Milk Stout is worded similarly to Spokenpriestess’.
“We wanna sing karaoke in our mother tongues! In the languages of our ancestors and forefathers. We wanna belt out lyrics to our favourite colloquial words, isms, and slang,” is how Afri-Sauti Karaoke is described.
Spokenpriestess reached out to the brand in early September and the brand only responded to her a week later, seemingly after social media pressure.
“They have denied any intellectual property infringement in the letter received from their legal manager (as written by their Legal Director) in response to our letter stipulating the differences between my concept and their campaign,” said Spokenpriestess.
The brand has yet to respond to questions sent to them by this publication.
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Afri-Sauti Karaoke was solely created by Spokenpriestess and brought to life in partnership with her business partner, Mpho Mfolo.
The DJ first registered her idea with the Trademark Registrar and confirmation was received from the Trademark Examiner’s office in February this year.
“This therefore means that the usage by Milk Stout dilutes our brand and the hard work we have invested in creating our brand as our followers have made a connection to the name ‘Afrikaraoke’ with the work that we do,” said Spokenpriestess.
“We have been dealing with the matter from a legal perspective from the on-set. We issued a letter of cease and desist and we will continue exploring what other options we have available to us to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights.”
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Castle Milk Stout has positioned itself as an un-performative proudly African brand through campaigns such as Black Conversations where prominent black public figures have authentic conversations pertaining to the experiences of black people.
Together with the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA), the brand hosted a symposium aimed at intensifying calls for the official recognition of Ancestor’s Day in the national calendar.
Their Afrikaraoke Street Challenge campaign, which is strangely similar to an idea of a black woman, is inconsistent with what the brand claims to stand for.
“There certainly is a disconnect there. It’s unfortunate because Castle Milk Stout and its agencies are responsible for their campaign work.
So, the fact that they didn’t consider the fundamental principles of what they, as a brand purports when doing this, is a gross deficiency of their processes,” Spokenpriestess said.
She said the conversation would’ve been different had the brand approached her or responded to her messages on social media when she approached them for a collaboration seeing as though there was alignment in their brands.
“Milk Stout would have had an opportunity to catapult an African-woman founded and led brand through investment however, that has not been the case unfortunately,” said the entrepreneur.
Spokenpriestess said she wasn’t deterred by the whole debacle but sees it as an opportunity.
“It’s something that could’ve been avoided if due diligence was done. It’s a completely unnecessary position to find myself in,” she said.
“However, I see an opportunity to open up a wider conversation about Intellectual Property and Copyright for creatives, and further talk about how we can all protect ourselves and our work. I’m a big advocate for creative industry education and being at the centre of a major lesson is almost ironic and perhaps a sign that I too am part of a bigger lesson for others.”
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