Bongs for Borat – Sacha Baron Cohen is suing a Massachusetts pharmacy for use of his painting

Here’s a tip to avoid getting sued: “Get legal permission before using anyone on your advertising campaigns.”

Why?

Because you could end up being sued by your uninvited “spokesman” for your brand, making you look like an ass in front of millions of people.

Some of you may be wondering what I am ranting about. I’m talking about Sasha Baron Cohen, who sued a cannabis dispensary in Massachusetts.

Solar Therapeutics Inc. – the pharmacy in question – had a billboard with Borat holding two thumbs up and saying, “It’s nice!” On it.

Sure – it’s a brilliant idea to penetrate mass consumer consciousness by tapping into a cultural icon like Borat …

BUT…

Borate is the intellectual property of Cohen. That is, if you want to officially use it in an advertising campaign, you need to contact the creator.

What this pharmacy apparently didn’t manage …

What did you think

One might assume that if you run a cannabis dispensary you would know about a little thing called “laws”.

Intellectual property rights are a real thing in the United States. A violation of these IP laws gives the title owner the right to sue for damages.

That’s why Facebook and Youtube are so anal when it comes to uploading music to their platforms until bots would label your original work as “someone else’s” just to cover their basics.

For the pharmacy to think it is “okay” to use Borat’s image to promote their goods, it indeed strikes me as very strange.

Didn’t they have anyone in the process telling the billboard, “Shouldn’t we ask permission to use borate on our billboard?”

Apparently – they didn’t.

And what if you don’t ask permission from a millionaire who has taken decades to build an image?

You are being sued – this is what happens!

And as anyone would expect, the pharmacy received a cease and desist statement from Cohen’s attorneys and the following public statement;

“By using the billboards, the defendants falsely conveyed to the public that Mr. Baron Cohen endorsed their products and is associated with their business,” the lawsuit filed on Monday said. “On the contrary, Mr. Baron Cohen has never used cannabis in his life. He would never take part in a cannabis ad campaign, at no cost. ”(As reported on NBC News)

The complaint continued by saying;

“Mr. Baron Cohen is very protective of his image and personality and that of his characters. Mr. Baron Cohen is very careful about the way in which he uses his personality and characters to interact with his fans and the public … ”

As a result, Borat is demanding a whopping $ 9 million in damages, and since the lawsuit does not list a “lawyer,” we can assume that it is directed at the owner of the pharmacy.

For now, that’s all we really know about this case, and in all likelihood the pharmacy would settle the actor’s bill.

Nonetheless, this is an important lesson for the cannabis industry as a whole.

Don’t fuck with borate!

Rather – don’t fuck with intellectual property without first getting proper consent. The mere fact that cannabis is a novel industry in certain places does not eliminate the very real “other industries” that exist.

This is especially true if you’re using mainstream advertising routes like putting up a billboard. These VERY public displays will grab people’s attention and can escalate quickly in a manner similar to the case in question.

IF the pharmacy wanted to use the picture of Borat it would probably have been more effective in running a “meme campaign” that would have used memes to sell the story or “to indicate that Borat likes the stuff” … which Cohen specifically said that he doesn’t ‘.

However, memes are not a violation of law if the source of the meme is not from the pharmacy. You can’t prevent a meme from existing. Anyone with a mobile device can share pictures on the split screen and add their own message.

Even there, things may change someday, but right now, using memes would be the safest choice to incorporate intellectual property into your brand.

Bongs for borate?

While it sounds great – ultimately, the person who created Borat can specify how Borat should behave. In a commercial setting – this is vital, as Solar Therapeutics Inc. recently learned.

Of course, the pharmacy’s strategy may have been to get sued by Cohen, and that’s how they garnered international attention for a cool $ 9 million.

I mean, I’m writing about what they did, which suggests it had some impact on generating buzz. Perhaps Massachusetts folks will travel to Solar Therapeutics to see the pharmacy that Borat has sued.

“Hey honey, check out this pharmacy – it was sued by Borat!”

“KIND!”

The sticky end result

Ultimately, these cannabis events will continue largely because – it appears in virtually every industry.

It’s both a lesson to learn and a sign that the cannabis industry is maturing and venturing into new areas some of which may not yet have experience.

If Solar Therapeutics are a group of people who wanted to sell weed legally – they might not realize the seriousness of using someone else’s image for your campaigns.

However, I also believe that the company that put up the billboard should be made “somewhat responsible” for the problem, much like Youtube could be held liable for copyright infringement.

Maybe there has to be a protocol in place where you have to prove that the ads you are using do not contain any copyrighted material – just like we do online. In this way we eliminate such events.

CANNABIS IP AND PROTECTION OF YOUR RIGHTS, READ MORE …

CANNABIS IP AND HOW TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS, READ THIS!