The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports on a shock that Marcin Zamoyski - the mayor of the town of Zamosc - experienced after he received an official letter from MediaWay company. MediaWay represents Danuta Grechuta who is a widow of the famous Polish singer, songwriter and composer Marek Grechuta. The problem concerns "Marek Grechuta's Zamosc Culture Festival".



Mrs Danuta Grechuta, in order to protect fame and popularity of Marek Grechuta against commercial use by third parties, applied on 18 September 2007 to the Polish Patent Office for the Marek Grechuta trade mark, Z-330297 for goods and services in classes 9, 14, 15, 16, 35, 38, 41, 42 and 45. According to Piotr Cholewinski, the president of MediaWay, Mrs Grechuta has no objections to the Zamosc Cultural Festival itself. She just wants to protect her husband's name and would like to decide on its use. He also added that Zamosc municipality has never contacted Grechuta's heirs for permission to use the name of this famous artist.

Jadwiga Machulewska, the director of the department of promotion, culture and social affairs of Zamosc said that three years ago, before the festival was held for the first time, president Zamoyski sent a letter to Mrs Grechuta, telling her about the idea of commemorating her husband. Every year, he also sent an invitation to the festival, however, Mrs Grechuta did not use it. Machulewska also said that Zamosc will pay this year for the use of Grechuta's name in the third festival. The negotiations between representatives of the artist's family and the town are not finished. Machulewska hopes that they will come to an agreement and continue the festival under its current name. The town, as organizer, does not profit from it and even subsidies this cultural event.



Zamosc authorities do not want to resolve this matter in a court, although they could have a chance of winning the case. According to professor Ryszard Skubisz, who was cited by Gazeta Wyborcza, "by intelligent presentation of arguments the city could get out of this case unscathed ... if this is not a commercial event, it is a cultural activity, which under the law is beyond the economic circulation, it may be presumed that the organizers did not infringed on the exclusive rights deriving from registration of the mark in the Patent Office".

Class46 previous posts regarding the use of artistic name as a trade mark include Ignacio Marqués' note entitled "Spain - Unregistered artistic names: how to protect them?".