Ethiopia: The President of the House Ends the Trademark Saga



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By Fasika Tadesse

The winner of the judicial battle was deprived of a copy of the judgment for 10 months

Keriya Ibrahim, the President of the House of Federation, concluded the saga of ownership of the four-year mark by handing the copy of the judgment to the lawyer of the Six Continents Hotel, Mehrteab Leul & Associates, the party that won the legal battle.

Mehrteab Leul & Associates, as the legal representative of the hotel, received a copy of the judgment at the beginning of the week, 10 months after the House made the favorable decision for the Hotel. However, the law firm refused a copy of the decision of the legal department of the House, insisting that the hotel, not the legal representative, make an appearance to receive the document.

The case began when Six Continents Property Office to register Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resort as a trademark. The hotel requested registration following its franchise agreement with Tsemex Hotels & Business Plc to open Crowne Plaza Addis in an 11-story building located on Liberia Street in Lideta District.

The Office's Office of Industrial Protection Invention rejected his request. that the mark is too similar to Crown Hotel, another establishment located in the Qality District and owned by Zewditu Mesfin. However, this decision was overturned by a court of the bureau, which ruled that the decision to refuse the mark would close the possibilities for foreign direct investment.

Zewditu was dissatisfied with the court's decision and appealed to the High Court. The court upheld the court's decision with the justification that there are differences in the colors and symbols used to represent the two marks. Later, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the High Court stating that trademarks should be protected because their coexistence could create confusion.

This decision compelled Six Continents to bring the case before the House, which referred it to the Council. Constitutional inquiry. The council, consisting of 10 legal professionals, reviewed the case and recommended to the House to approve the coexistence of the two brands, saying that restricting the mark to the local investor only could discourage the Foreign direct investment.

In the Council, the Chamber repealed the decision of the Supreme Court of Cbadation, which ruled in favor of Zewditu. However, the document of the decision of the House was not given to Six Continents and Tsemex. Tsemex has not shown interest in collecting a copy of the judgment because it has already withdrawn from the deal with Six Continents and has signed another franchise agreement with Accor Hotels to bring MGallery through Sofitel Hotels.

However, the House's legal department headed by Muluye Welelaw refused to hand over the copy of the judgment to Mehrteab Leul & Associates, stating that the decision could be entrusted to Six Continents and Tsemex only

Six Six Continents or Tsemex did not seem to collect the document, the Management sent the document back to the House on the grounds that the parties had not collected it for six months. A month and a half ago, the law firm filed a complaint directly with the President of the House, claiming that the copy of the legal documents had been illegally denied.

"We were illegally deprived of the possibility of the Legal Department of the House declared that Six Continents must itself appear in the House to accept the document," read the letter submitted by Mehrteab Leul & Associates in June

Keriya, who has been studying the case for a few weeks., Finally decided to hand over the document to the law firm

"This is a clear indication that the rule of law is coming back in this country, "said Mehrteab, director of Mehrteab Leul & Associates.

Ankita Chopra, communications director of the Six Continents subsidiary, InterContinental Hotels Group, the operator of Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resort, said: did not respond to Fortune's email survey before the paper was sent to print.

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