Expert: Belarusians have shown nothing worth copying yet
European Court of Justice prohibited registration of the Soviet state emblem as a trademark. Advertising consultant Julia Lyashkevich comments the situation.
The court supported the decision of the EU trademark service and prohibited the company Couture Tech to register the Soviet Union state emblem as a trademark, The Times informs. The company, which has connections with one of Russian companies, tried to register the USSR emblem as its own intellectual property before.
Euroradio: How justified and reasonable it is to use political symbols in commercial aims by companies?
Lyashkevich: “It often happens in the advertising business that some company tries to register a well-known symbol. There are a lot of legal nuances here, because of the existence of such concept as copyright: both flags and emblems have authors. On the other hand, there are symbols which belong to a whole epoch, to peoples or countries. Just imagine someone wanting to register, for example, letter "A" from the alphabet. The situation with the state emblem is similar to that. I consider it unacceptable when some company pretends for symbols of any country.
Euroradio: On the other hand, the court prohibited use of the Soviet emblem as a trademark claiming that sickle and hammer "contradict the principles of the public policy and accepted moral norms". Does it mean that the Soviet symbols are considered equal to Nazi ones in Europe?
Lyashkevich: “Many people wear different symbols on their clothes, including political ones, and they think it's funny. Someone does not accept that. Someone does not accept Lenin's monument in the Independence Square. There wasn't re-estimation of values in our country, unlike the fascist Germany. Many families suffered from the Communists, still somebody wears and uses their symbols with honour”.
Euroradio: What would you advise to the Belarusian firms to use as brands?
Lyashkevich: “If a firm produces goods of high quality, the brand will go to the second place. It is not important which symbols the firm would use”.
Euroradio: In your opinion, do Belarusians have a national brand?
Lyashkevich: “At present moment we have nothing strong. For example, Julia Tymoshenko's plait used to be a brand during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Everyone aid attention to it. Belarusians have produced nothing worth copying or adoring so far”.
