MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay Municipality's application to register its logo as a trademark was accepted in April.
The next step following the acceptance of the application is for it to be published in the Patent Journal to allow an opportunity for anyone who wishes to oppose the registering of the trademark, to do so.
The notice will be published in the journal on 25 June and there is a three-month period in which people can oppose the move.
Should the registration of the trademark succeed, the municipality will be issued a registration certificate, allowing it the exclusive right to use its logo.
An item regarding the registration was tabled during the open municipal council meeting on 29 May.
The application was made to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission during December 2023.
The application and publishing fee is R590. A trademark is valid for 10 years, whereafter it must be renewed.
Not supported
Once the item was opened for discussion, none of the councillors of opposition parties supported the trademark registration.
Both the Freedom Front Plus and the ANC abstained from voting on the matter, saying the logo was not representative of all in Mossel Bay, because the wording on it was only in English.
The ACDP wanted to know what the motivation was for wanting to register the logo as a trademark.
Pride
The municipal manager, Colin Puren, defended the trademark registration, saying: “It is a question of pride, and to make sure this trademark is associated with what is good about our town.
"Sometimes people or organisations with whom we don't want to associate, as a municipality, might use this brand. At least now people will have to apply to us to get permission.”
Mayor Dirk Kotzé concurred with Puren. He thanked those involved in the process. “They have been working on this for more than a year. To to our Legal Department, thank you very much for this effort. It is important that we protect our brand.”
Concern
ACDP councillor Jeanette Gouws said it concerned her that municipal officials had spent more than a year working on this. “To me that is a waste of resources.”
“This brand doesn’t belong to the government; it doesn’t belong to Mossel Bay Municipality; it belongs to the community of Mossel Bay.”
For these reasons, the ACDP also abstained from voting.
The mayor said he thought Gouws was wrong, “because if it is not registered, it belongs to nobody, not even the people of Mossel Bay”.
The Patriotic Alliance party also abstained. The councillor for Icosa, Nadia Krige, was not present at the meeting, but she told Mossel Bay Advertiser she also abstained from voting on the trademark.
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