The overall situation, put as matter-of-factly as possible, is this:
The pensioner volunteers who ran Boggo Road circa 1999-2004 did so as a not-for-profit entity called the Boggo Road Gaol Museum Association. Around 1999-2000 they established a museum website with the domain name ‘boggoroadgaol.com.au’.
Following retirements and deaths, the BRGM Association was wound down circa 2004 and assets were transferred to the incorporated association Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society, including the domain name. A couple of years later the BRGHS finally updated the old boggoroadgaol.com.au website with new information about their group, including not-for-profit publications and proposed tours of Boggo Road (a place which at that time had been closed for a few years at that time).
This drew the attention of ‘Jack’ Sim who had recently begun using a website with the domain ‘boggoroadgaol.com’ (his previous website was boggoroadjail.com.au) and had registered a trademark logo which - among other things - happened to contain the words 'Boggo Road Gaol' and his new domain address.
Mr Sim reacted to the BRGHS website by sending out two lengthy and probably expensive legal threats, one to the historical society and one to retired volunteer John Banks, claiming that the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society had infringed his trademark and had adopted the mark ‘Boggo Road Goal’ with "the deliberate object of causing confusion and deception".
In his mind, the historical society - which predated his Boggo Road business - was deliberately 'passing itself off' as that business simply because the volunteers were engaged in all the usual historical society activities (research, publishing and tours) and had a domain name that had been used by Boggo Road volunteers since 1999-2000 - years before his business was even established.
Mr Sim then made the following demands:
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| The threat from 'Ghost Tours' and 'Boggo Road Gaol Pty Ltd'. |
- Pay for 'damages' (even though the prison was closed and so no tours were even happening).
- No longer be allowed to use the mark ‘Boggo Road Gaol’ when ‘passing off’ their books, research and proposed tours (remember, this is a community group called the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society).
- Either destroy all the historical society’s printed stock and other material or hand it all over to him.
- Pay all his costs.
- If none of this was done, he would take the volunteers to the Supreme Court.
If the volunteers had agreed to these demands, their historical society would have closed down. The group had about 40 members at the time and the old prison had been closed for three years. The group was surviving thanks to the sales of the books they wrote and printed. The demand that the volunteers destroy their existing stock and pay what could have been thousands of dollars in costs would have left the historical society with no saleable product and no money for new stock or even paying their annual four-figure overheads (such as insurance). It would have been the end of their organisation.
Fortunately, the volunteers had access to some quality legal advice and the expert verdict was one of astonishment and amusement at the general absurdity of the threat. The volunteers ignored the threat and so a follow-up threat arrived in the postbox on Christmas Eve. This second letter was also ignored.
Historical society volunteers met with Mr Sim a couple of months later, He let it be known that the threat could be forgotten about if they signed off on his plan for running Boggo Road. Not only did the historical society reject the ‘offer’ outright, they made it clear that they would not even discuss working with him until the threat was withdrawn. He refused to do so.
The logic behind the volunteers’ thinking is obvious. They are simply not willing to work for the financial benefit of any commercial entity that was threatening to sue and possibly close their group down. They would not undertake unpaid volunteer work to help fund possible legal action against themselves.
The subject came up at a later meeting between historical society volunteers, government officials and Mr Sim himself. He initially denied having made the threat, but when the actual legal letters were immediately produced, he verbally repeated the threat! He was challenged by the volunteers to follow through with his threat, but has refused to do so.
What needs to be remembered is that when Boggo Road finally moves into a better future, there will be plenty of arts and history organisations lining up to bring the old prison back to life for the public. This is exactly what is needed, because a lot of different people had very different experiences of life inside that prison and so the many stories of Boggo Road should be told in many voices and many ways.
And they should be allowed to do so in a professional atmosphere free of the kind of threats and bullying such as the one described above.
