Pretoria - “Add flair to your sokkie” was a catchy phrase used by a local dance studio to refer to the style of longarm dancing, a form of social ballroom popular in South Africa.
But now two dance studios that both adopted the phrase are in court, slugging it out over who has the rights to it.
Helen Patricia Els, who runs Ceroc Dance South Africa with classes in Pretoria, took on rival Lezelle Pretorius – who also offers dance classes in the city – over her use of Ceroc on her website, which has since been removed, as well as the “sokkie” phrase Els used to describe her classes.
Pretorius said she was entitled to use “add flair to your sokkie” as it was not a registered trademark. But, Els last year turned to the high court in Pretoria, and obtained an interdict preventing Pretorius from using her trademark name, Ceroc, in relation to her rival dance school.
Els has now returned to court for an order confirming Pretorius may not infringe on her trademark, and to have her held in contempt of court for persisting in using words tied to her studio, despite a court order preventing her from doing so and which she feels will cause confusion among clients.
Before the court case, Pretorius ran a franchise of Els’s Ceroc at Silver Lakes but this agreement was terminated in November 2013.
Pretorius now runs Modern Jive Dance Club, affiliated with Ceroc International, a business registered in the UK with dance schools across the world.
Els said Pretorius was using the Ceroc logo in relation to her franchise. The logos were not identical, but people were likely to confuse the two studios, especially if the catchy phrase was added.
Pretorius countered the logos were not the same and nobody would confuse the dance schools.
She “has absolutely no desire to be associated with Els’s trademark”, she said. She used the Ceroc name either on its own or as part of the phrase “Ceroc Dance Silver Lakes”.
Judge Ronel Tolmay said the services the parties render were the same and people were likely to confuse the two schools.
But she found Pretorius was not in contempt of court as she had explained she was part of the Ceroc international chain and thus believed she was entitled to use the wording too.
Pretoria News