Yes, it looks like her life is terrible.
I remember buying large screen tv's and fancy art when "trying to survive"...
Posted on 08/25/2020 3:55:23 AM PDT by gattaca
It was a venture born of desperation. Four months into quarantine, Yohana Agurto, an unemployed teacher in Chile, was scrolling through social media to take her mind off her dwindling savings and the four children she had to feed. Inspiration struck when she and her boyfriend came across a post with a photo of the American actor Mel Gibson. Agurto remembered she had a large stash of organic honey in the pantry. Mel sounds quite similar to the Spanish word for honey, miel. So on a whim, Agurto had a graphic designer friend sketch out a logo with a scene from the movie Braveheart, printed a handful at home and glued them onto glass jars.
That was the origin of Miel Gibson, the tiniest and scrappiest of businesses, which catered, according to the label, “Only to the brave.” She advertised on social media and by word-of-mouth, picking up enough orders to keep her reasonably busy and the family’s bills paid. Then last week a most unwelcome email popped into Agurto’s inbox with the subject line: “Cease and Desist/Miel Gibson.”
“We are counsel to Mel Gibson,” said the letter, which was sent by a Los Angeles attorney whose firm represents several celebrities. “It has come to my attention that you are illegally using Mr Gibson’s name and/or likeness and/or biography to market or sell honey products.”
At first Agurto entertained the possibility the whole thing could be a cruel joke, but when it became clear it was a real legal threat, she panicked. “I realised I was up against Goliath,” she said in an interview. Some friends told Agurto she should ignore the letter, arguing that no American lawyer would waste time shutting down a woman selling honey from her home in Santiago during a pandemic. But others warned her that Americans are tremendously litigious, Agurto said, which led her to delete the email account she had created for the business, hoping the whole thing would go away. “I was terribly anguished,” Agurto (40) said in an interview. “I thought I could end up facing fines. What would happen to my family, to my finances? I’m a single mother of four and they depend on me.” Chile’s quarantine has been among the longest and strictest in the world, and the country is still reeling from one of the highest per capita rates of infection. The government recently authorised Chileans to dip into their pension plans early to provide a lifeline to millions who are struggling to make ends meet as several sectors of the economy remain paralysed.
No buns, no sauce, no fries, no wedges: How to make the perfect chip butty Tomatoes: To skin or not to skin? Sabrina Ghayour: ‘I don’t have a bee in my bonnet about authenticity’ Yohana Agurto in her home in Santiago, Chile, where she packs her honey with her team. Photograph: Victor Ruiz Caballero/The New York Times Yohana Agurto in her home in Santiago, Chile, where she packs her honey with her team. Photograph: Victor Ruiz Caballero/The New York Times After a couple sleepless nights, Agurto decided she had invested too much time and effort in her artisanal honey brand to simply shut it down. She reflected on how much she admired William Wallace, the Scottish warrior Gibson played in Braveheart, and decided to go public about the legal threat.
Her plight got plenty of sympathetic press coverage in Chile and beyond, free legal advice and a torrent of new orders. On Monday, Agurto said messages from would-be customers were streaming in by text message and on her social media accounts faster than she could read them.
The bulk sellers where she gets her honey are nearly out of stock. “I’m sleeping three hours a night,” she said. “I have hundreds of messages I haven’t responded to.” María José Arancibia, a lawyer in Chile who represents Agurto, said she had reached out to the actor’s attorney, hoping to negotiate a compromise. Arancibia said Miel Gibson intends to keep its name but plans to lose the actor’s image from the label.
Businesses and celebrities routinely send cease-and-desist letters to people who are profiting from copyrighted images, names and logos without authorisation. Gibson’s lawyer, Leigh Brecheen, said that her client is not seeking to put Agurto out of business.
“None of this is meant to prevent anyone from earning an income or creating a business,” she said in an emailed statement. “But there are proper channels to contact and clearances you need to go through to make sure you have the approval for such usage.”
Regardless of how the matter gets resolved, Agurto said she would love to send a courtesy sample of Miel Gibson to Mel Gibson. She wants him to know, she added, that the ordeal has not made her any less of a fan. “My motivation was not to profit by using the image of a famous person,” she said. “I was selling honey to survive.” – New York Times
Mel could negotiate with this person for a small piece of the pie and probably should do so.
I am betting the attorney’s are on autopilot filing against anyone who even remotely uses Gibson’s name.
They do this to protect the brand- because in the past some courts have ruled that you must not care because you didn’t fight to protect it.
Mel should make this go away and help out this poor woman.
Trademark laws.
Women and children hardest hit.
I agree.
“I was selling honey to survive,” sounds all virtuous victimy, doesn’t it?
“I was selling honey illegally using Mel Gibson’s name and picture”? Not so much.
I am going to package manure and sell it to feed my starving family.
I am going to label it “New York Times”
Why didn’t she call it Winnie the Pooh honey. I’m sure Disney wouldn’t mind. /sarc
Yes, it looks like her life is terrible.
I remember buying large screen tv's and fancy art when "trying to survive"...
IP and Trademark licensing can get very involved and tricky. Not only must Mel Gibson protect his IP, but his brand may also be under other contractual restraints and limitations in agreements he has with other parties.
One example which I see often in music; a band and it's members are often limited/restricted by contracts they have with their record label, their management, tour promoters, and etc. as to what, where, and when they can license their brand or endorse products.
“One must defend their intellectual rights or loose them”
Lose. The word is lose.
BTW...this whole article sounds like a lot of BS.
The actual honey that Mel Gibson puts in his tea, then slathers his body with and rides naked on horseback screaming “FREEDOM!”
Sorry, waiting for the coffee to brew.
Knew it as soon as I clicked on “Post”.
LOL. Just scraping buy on a teacher’s salary.
Ernesto Londoño seems to feel if your ‘pity party story’ hits all the right notes, you have the right to steal another person’s name... and brand.
How creepy.
This is a case of crooked journalists stirring up sympathy for a crooked business.
Mel Gibson is on the right side here. He spent years building his brand, so why should any random person be allowed to piggy back on it without his benefit? If this principle isn’t enforced then when will it all end?
Sorry. It’s just one word that makes My spelling worse. I have to t hi no about how to spell it now since it is so abused on this forum.
Just another reason to want Hollywood to go bankrupt.I hope the child sex predators all leave this country.
Save the honeybee.
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