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Marley's heirs stand up for rights to his mega-buck name

November 02, 2009 Edition 1

KINGSTON: Coming to a store near you: Bob Marley video games, shoes ... snowboards?

Heirs of the Jamaican reggae legend are plunging into the global trademark wars, seeking to enforce their exclusive rights to an image that has grown steadily in scope and appeal since the Jamaican superstar died of brain cancer in 1981 at the age of 36.

The Marley name, look and sound are estimated to generate an estimated $600 million (R5 billion) a year in sales of unlicensed wares. Legal sales are much smaller - just $4 million for his descendants in 2007, according to Forbes magazine.

Now the Marley family have hired Toronto-based Hilco Consumer Capital to protect their rights to the brand. Hilco CEO Jamie Salter believes Marley products could be a $1bn business in a few years.

The turn to big business has stirred some grousing from diehard fans in internet chatrooms, who say it goes against the grain of a singer who preached non-materialism and popularised the Rastafarian credo of oneness with nature, and marijuana consumption as a sacrament.

But Lorna Wainwright, who manages a Kingston studio and music shop called Tuff Gong - Marley's nickname during his boyhood in a nearby slum - backs the move.

"It's a free-for-all out there with all the fakes, all the piracy," she said. "It's important to continue getting his real message out like when he was alive, because the world is in a crisis and Bob Marley's lyrics provide a solution."

A representative of the Bobo Ashanti order, a Rastafarian group, also expressed support.

"Bob Marley was and still is a stepping stone for many around the world who seek Rastafari roots and culture," said the Rasta representative, who, in an e-mail, identified himself as "the honourable prophet Moambeh Acosta".

"We can only hope and pray for the (family's) success."

Rather than focusing on street vendors, who hawk everything from Bob Marley T-shirts to beach towels, the partnership is creating a new line of products dubbed "House of Marley" and will police the trademark vigilantly.

Snowboards are among a wide variety of planned merchandise - including backpacks, stationery, headphones, musical instruments and restaurants - featuring the dreadlocked musician's image, name or message. Items are expected to hit the market next year.

Marley "would be amused to know that his face is being used to brand a wide range of products and services," said Professor Carolyn Cooper, former co-ordinator of the reggae studies unit at Jamaica's University of the West Indies.

But Cooper said the Marley family were right to emulate the estates of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other pop heroes in protecting the trademark. Presley's estate brought in nearly $55m in revenue last year.

Marley's lyrics promoting social justice made him an icon. His acceptance by mainstream America was sealed when the Budweiser frogs grooved to his song Jamming in a 1999 beer ad. His One Love anthem woos tourists to Jamaica on TV spots featuring white-sand beaches and palms.

Most of Marley's heirs are also musicians, including his widow Rita and son Ziggy, who won four Grammys with the Melody Makers, a band that included another son, Stephen, and daughters Sharon and Cedella. Son Damian has won three Grammys.

The family say they care less about moving merchandise than about preserving the patriarch's legacy. - Sapa-AP

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