Mandela battles lawyer, gallery over his name, prison art

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July 22: Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for his fight against South Africa’s former apartheid regime, is waging a new battle: to defend the rights to his name.

About 60 companies and organizations have sought to use the Mandela name without his consent, including a car repair company, an art gallery and a purveyor of gold coins. Mandela himself, who turned 87 this week, uses his fame to raise money for AIDS awareness and education projects.

Mandela, a Nobel peace prize winner and South Africa’s first black president, is considered the world’s second most recognizable brand after Coca-Cola, said Don MacRobert, a trademark lawyer employed to protect Mandela’s interests.

The name ‘‘is worth billions of dollars,’’ he said in a phone interview. ‘‘Mr. Mandela gets very grumpy if people use his name, particularly for commercial purposes.’’

In the most recent wrangle, Mandela is suing Ismail Ayob, his lawyer of three decades. He accuses him of failing to properly account for sales of his artwork of Robben Island, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.

Included among the charcoal and watercolor pictures were depictions of Mandela’s cell, the view from his window and the island’s church, guard tower and harbor, which each sold for several thousand dollars. American talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Woolworths Holdings Ltd., South Africa’s fifth-largest retailer, have said they bought some of the paintings.

Damage

In a statement made to the Johannesburg High Court, Mandela said Ayob and an associate failed to ensure the money was transferred to his charities, as he had agreed. He also alleges some of the signatures on his drawings may have been forged. The ‘‘unlawful and illegal activities’’ had misled members of the public to spend substantial amounts of money on artworks that they mistakenly believed Mandela had created or signed, the former president wrote. ‘‘The damage to my name and reputation by the unlawful activities that I complain of will have an adverse impact on the ability of my efforts, and those of’’ my charities ‘‘to rely on my name to raise funds.’’

Mandela said he trusted Ayob to the extent that he signed documents without reading them and unwittingly transferred his intellectual property rights to the lawyer.

Bally Chuene, Mandela’s lawyer in the case, did not respond to numerous calls from Bloomberg News seeking comment

Ayob’s affidavit

In his 320-page replying affidavit, Ayob denied any wrongdoing, saying Mandela was forgetful and behaved irrationally.