"You know the word 'Dago'? I own it, I own the rights. People who use the word dago have to lease it from me."
This Santo Cilauro quote from a satirical sketch on the Late Show in 1992 may have predicted an unfolding controversy in Australia's world of ethnic comedy, a genre that began in the 1980s and remains popular today.
Comedians have told SBS Italian that Greek-Australian comedian Nick Giannopoulos threatened them with legal action to defend his trademark of the word "wog".
Giannopoulos confirmed this week to the Herald Sun that he had trademarked the words "wogs" and "wogboy", echoing 27 years later Santo Cilauro's Late Show sketch of Lou Interligi, who fictionally trademarked the racial slur "dago".
A few Australian comedians claim that Giannopoulos’ lawyers have contacted their Melbourne promoters and warned them not to use the word "wogs" in their show titles lest they violate Giannopolous' trademark.
Giannopoulos denies the claims, declaring on his Facebook account: “I am not currently suing anyone”.
One of the comedians caught up in the controversy is Gabriel Rossi, who for years at Christmas has staged a show titled 'A Very Woggy Xmas'. Howewer, recently he changed the title to a 'A Very Ethnic Xmas'.
"My promoter received a letter from Giannopoulos’ lawyers, warning us not to use the word 'wog' in the titles of our shows," Gabriel Rossi tells SBS Italian.
"We understand that he has a legal right to do so, but we don't understand why a word should be property of an individual."
However in his Facebook post, Giannopoulos denied Rossi’s claim, saying, “I have never sent Mr Rossi a legal letter. I have never asked him to change the title of his 'Woggy Show'.
“But nevertheless I guess he and a few others got the publicity they were looking for,” added Giannopoulos.
The word “wog” was trademarked in 1997 by Thirdcosta PTY LTD, the group behind Giannopoulos' theatrical productions such as 'Wogs out of work' and 'Wog-a-rama'.
There are four Australian trademarks pertaining to the word "wog" and only in Thirdcosta's trademark is the single word "wogs" protected. In other cases the word is combined with adjectives to form a title, such as 'The Original Wogs Memes'.
But is it possible to trademark a single word?
Wayne Covell, a lawyer specialising in patents and copyright told SBS Italian it is definitely possible.
"One of the fundamental points is whether the word is descriptive," said Covell. "If you file the request for the word 'soap' for example, you will not get the trademark because it is a simply descriptive word. It really depends on the circumstances."
So what does this mean for the word “wog” in this scenario?
"No one in 1997 opposed the trademark request. And so far no one has challenged the validity of the trademark in court. In a hypothetical scenario, the crucial point would be: Is the word being used descriptively or as a trademark?"
Gabriel Rossi has been a comedian for 18 years and says he feels “saddened” by having changed the names of his shows, adding he's worried people may not understand what the shows are about.
“Overall, in the world of ethnic comedy, the sentiment towards Giannopoulos is quite negative,” Rossi tells SBS Italian. "He has always done his shows and has never wanted to collaborate with us. The only time we hear from him is when he says, ‘you can do this, or you cannot do this’.”
Comedian Joe Avati also tells SBS Italian that his promoter received a warning similar to the one received by Gabriel Rossi.
"I was very surprised, since there are a lot of shows with the word "wog". Why did he issue a warning to us, I wondered? If you need to issue a warning, then you need to issue it to everyone.”
Avati's show is called 'Born to be Wogs' which he suggests has caught the eye of Giannopoulos' lawyers.
"This will have no consequences for me because I have a large audience, already consolidated all over the world. But it is very sad for young people who can't use that word. It feels depressing.
“We don't use the word in a wrong way, we celebrate the word in the same way he does”.
This situation has sparked a wave of response on radio, newspapers and social media.
"I think the whole thing is getting a little silly," comedian James Liotta told SBS Italian.
"I understand Giannopoulos’s point of view, since he registered the trademark, but in the past he said he would take legal action only against those who used the word "wog" in the wrong way. For example a while ago now, he declared on TV that he would stop a pizza chain from using the word."
Liotta said there are no intentions to challenge the validity of Giannopolous' trademark in court, but he couldn’t rule out that this would never happen, even as a collective action.
Giannopoulos was contacted by SBS Italian but did not respond to requests for an interview.
