Vienna (OTS) – As announced at the press conference in Berlin's Café Einstein, the Vienna group monochrom has assumed ownership of all trademark and usage rights of the artist Jörg Schlick's "Lord Jim Lodge". Schlick, who died in December 2005, developed the brand name together with Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen and Wolfgang Bauer during the 1980s. This takeover has far-reaching consequences for numerous artistic endeavors. In cooperation with the Berlin art consulting agency Teyssandier-Springer, monochrom has lodged claims asserting its rights in the affair while simultaneously inviting the owners of the works in question to negotiate a satisfactory out-of-court settlement.

Shortly before the artist's death, monochrom purchased from Jörg Schlick in a package deal all rights pertaining to intellectual property, copyright, trademark, and usage in accordance with national and international regulations.

These include:

- the trademark: "Lord Jim Lodge"
- the trademark logo: "Sonne Busen Hammer" (Sun Breasts Hammer)
- the trademark slogan: "Keiner hilft Keinem" (No one helps nobody)

Furthermore, additional agreements were made devolving to monochrom any and every legal claim pertaining to resale rights involving the artwork "Lord Jim Lodge".

In practical terms this means: without the agreement of the owners of the trademarks specified above, those works that contain these trademarks may not be used in any way. This applies first and foremost to reproduction and exhibition.

Legal action is being considered against galleries such as the NGBK in Berlin, Galerie Bleich-Rossi in Vienna and the Forum Stadtpark in Graz, which in view of planned upcoming exhibitions run in danger of infringing on these rights.

This approach is intended to create a foundation for franchising concepts and artistic "restartups". Thus, in cooperation with Teyssandier-Springer, monochrom is investigating the acquisition of additional trademarks with a high symbolic value but low real capital volume. Netbase (Institute for New Cultural Technologies, Vienna) and the artist group ubermorgen.com (Prix Ars Electronica 2005) have been named as potential precarized candidates for acquisition.

Download the press conference:

http://www.teyssandier-springer.com/lordjimloge.htm
http://www.lordjimloge.com
http://www.monochrom.at/english/

Contact:
Roland Gratzer
Tel.: +43 650 999 6870
rg AT monochrom.at