SXSW Has Qualms About Labor's Similar Name For Their Planned Similar Event In Canberra

6 October 2016 | 1:02 pm | Staff Writer

Not so fast there, South By Southeast

For a bunch of people who make it their business to punish everyday citizens for copyright and trademark infringement, politicians sure can be pretty terrible at abiding their own standards.

After a busy period that has seen several musicians calling out state and national leaders, parties and organisations for using their songs without permission, the ACT Labor Party has drawn the (friendly) ire of renowned US industry mecca South By Southwest after publicising plans to hold its own similar event in Canberra, to be called South By Southeast.

According to Fairfax, upon hearing the news, long-serving SXSW Australia rep Phil Tripp engaged in "a friendly conversation" with the party to ensure there would be no "confusion" over the trademark and its implied association with the planned event.

He told the publisher there was no animosity behind the contact, saying that there had been "no legal letters, no injunction, no solicitors" involved.

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"œWe'™re not angry, we'™re cool with what'™s going on," he told Fairfax. "With trademarks, you have to assert your rights.

"Basically, if someone starts using your brand, you've got to let them know, otherwise you can lose your right to protection."

Speaking to The Music, Tripp explained that the situation with Labor's infringement — as with many such instances — was wholly innocent in intent; as a near-15-year veteran with the festival as its Australian representative, he sees this kind of thing "all the time", he says.

"We've got a really great name, don't we? South By Southwest," he mused. "People would like to use that name in some way to grab attention for themselves, so [they think] by giving away tickets to South By Southwest  that is, buying a $700, $1000 or more badge, and using it in a giveaway like airlines, telcos, ad agencies and others have done  that that would be a cool idea, but we don't want people to use our name or show any association with us as though we're endorsing them or partners with them or whatever. 

"What [Labor] did was, they looked at our event  everybody knows South By, so to speak  and they go, 'Ooh, wouldn't it be great if we could do something like South By Southeast?' That's where we are!" Tripp told The Music. "Instead of South By South By South, which would be much more original [laughs]

"Anyway, they had it as a working title  you know, 'This is what we're thinking of doing, is something like South By Southwest, and somehow between the working-title phase and the press-release phase of the Labor Party, it became a name."

However, he says, Labor were quick to remedy the situation once he approached them, and have since made public amends for the overstep.

"Although it's what you'd call an 'infringement', I didn't use injunctive relief or a cease-and-desist order," Tripp said. 

"I behaved like a gentleman and just said, 'Hey, guy  you might not know this but you don't have the rights to use this, and I'm sure, innocently enough, you've come up with this idea and name, but you've gotta quit, and you've gotta make it public, and you've gotta go back to the media that you gave the release to and rescind it, and you've gotta make everybody feel happy about it. And they were very happy to do that, because they didn't look like fools and I didn't have to engage them in legal action.

"Which I would've  if they were assholes, I would've, but I gotta tell you, from the beginning, they were very nice."

Despite pulling up Labor over the plan and asserting its trademark rights, SXSW historically hasn't been overly precious about its name, as long as it's been at least partially involved — in fact, it even extended itself to minority ownership in Canadian mirror event North By Northeast, allowing that festival to run unimpeded for the past 21 years, since its inception in 1995.

Additionally, organisers founded North By Northwest, in Portland, at the same time, with that event last being held in 2001. Ten years ago, in 2006, the organisers also founded West By Southwest, a pre-SXSW festival event featuring several showcase acts.

Much less officially, Spartanburg, South Carolina, held its own South By Southeast festival in April this year (and it was also held in 2014 before "the Great Fall Festival Rain-Out Of 2015").

However, not all have slipped past unhindered — festivals that have ultimately changed their name (for whatever reason) from an obviously similar construct include 35 Denton (formerly "North By 35", in Denton, Texas), C2SV (formerly "SVSX", in San Jose, California), Incubate (formerly "ZXZW", in Tilburg, Netherlands), SO WHAT?! (formerly South By So What, in Dallas, Texas) and Yes & Yes Yes (formerly "Yes By Yes Yes", in Palm Springs, California).