January 20, 2002	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1422

LOS ANGELES, Jan 19: Maybe he should have gone with “Yeslam.” Instead, Yeslam Binladin, one of Osama bin Laden’s 53 siblings, is planning to launch a clothing line under a label that might carry a marketing challenge: “Bin Ladin.”

The Geneva-based Mr Binladin applied for trademark protection for the label in Switzerland and the European Union several months before Sept 11.

Despite the name’s overwhelmingly negative associations now, he has decided to move forward with the line.

But as the name is now one of the most famous names in the world and people are able to distinguish between Osama and the rest of the Bin Ladin family so Yeslam has decided to go with it.

At least the names are usually spelled differently in English, with some in the wealthy clan favouring the one-word transliteration.

Currently, he is looking for an Italian partner to produce the line, which will be moderately priced and designed to compete with the likes of Italian retailer Benetton SpA. The logo will consist only of the Bin Ladin name, written in Arabic or Latin letters depending on the market. The clothes will be launched first in the Arab world and then in Europe, and later, possibly in the United States, where lawyers are working on a trademark request.

The family is one of the Middle East’s blue-chip names, controlling the $5 billion construction conglomerate Saudi Binladin Group, which was founded in 1931 by Mohammed Binladin, the father of Osama and Yeslam. Osama worked briefly in the group as a young man but was disowned by the family nearly a decade ago when he embraced radical anti-US views and terrorism.

Raised in Saudi Arabia, Yeslam Binladin has been living in Switzerland for more than 20 years, overseeing IBL Holding AG, the division controlling the family’s Swiss-based assets. He last saw Osama in 1986.

In theory, the Bin Ladin label could find fans in the anti-establishment or anti-US youth culture, which has in the past embraced nose-thumbing fads such as jeans emblazoned with the American flag on the rear or T-shirts emblazoned with the logo for Death Cigarettes.