Press release regarding the use of the Green Dot international trademark
Given the many inquiries regarding the use of the Green Dot international trademark on the packaging, Ekopak announces the following statement.
Green Dot is a duly registered trademark on the international level with the right recognized in the jurisdiction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the number IR 653450 IR and IR 653449. Registered trademark represents independent property and gives the exclusive rights to its holder provided by the Law on Trademarks of B&H (Official Gazette of B&H No 53/10). By this law is clearly given that unauthorized use of the trademark rights is not allowed. In accordance with Article 49, paragraph 2, the trademark holder has the right to prohibit:
a) use of trademark on goods, its packaging or labels of goods,
b) offering of the goods, its placement on the market or its storage for these purposes, or the provision of services under the trademark,
c) import, export or transit of goods under the trademark,
d) use of a trademark in business documents or in advertising.
In brief, the holder of the trademark, that is authorized user of the trademark, has exclusive rights to use the mark on goods, its packaging or labels of goods, to offer goods, place goods on the market or provide services under the trade mark, to import, export or transit goods under the trade mark and use the trademark in business documents or in advertising.
By fulfilling the high standards required by the EU, when joining and signing a contract with PRO EUROPE - the European umbrella packaging recovery organization headquartered in Brussels, Ekopak became the exclusive provider of the rights for the Green Dot trademark usage for market of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Getting the exclusive rights for Green Dot trademark usage is competitive advantage of Ekopak that we got by fulfilling strict conditions and high standards established by the PRO EUROPE. Any use of the trademark on the market of Bosnia and Herzegovina without the written permission from Ekopak is contrary to the Law on Trademarks of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
By signing a contract with PRO EUROPE Ekopak took over the responsibility to legally regulate the use of the Green Dot trademark on our market, so we have already started with the control of its use.
The simplest way to obtain the right to use the Green Dot trademark is to transfer to Ekopak the requirements of the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste management (Official Gazette of FB&H No 88/11 and Official Gazette of FB&H No 28/13), at this way clients automatically obtain the right to the free usage of this trademark. If a packaging company otherwise regulates its obligations according to the legislation and wants to have the trademark on the packaging, it is necessary to sign a contract for trademark usage with Ekopak and to pay certain fees. A third possibility is to remove the trademark and not to use it on packaging, because its use is not obligatory, but definitely promotes a company that uses it as socially responsible.
The Green Dot represents a link to Europe through Ekopak and it is a proof of our high business standards, transparent, professional and ethical principles of all our employees. With the fulfillment of legal obligations, we provide to our clients the added value in building a positive image among consumers and the wider social community.
We use this opportunity to invite all packaging producers, importers, fillers, distributors and end suppliers to transfer their obligations on packaging and packaging waste management, given by the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste management, on to Ekopak, to meet them at the lowest sustainable costs and, at the same time ensure the right of free usage of the Green Dot - prestigious and international trademark, on the packaging.
In the future Ekopak will work on the promotion of the meaning and significance of Green Dot towards business sector, as well towards consumers and wider social community, which is one of our obligations given by PRO EUROPE membership in order to establish long-term and transparent system of separate collection and recycling of packaging waste based on the best European practices and to position our country closer to European integration in this segment.
A list of recovery organizations exclusively authorized by PRO EUROPE to give the right for the Green Dot usage in their country is given below. It is evident that in every country from Europe to America, only one system operator is authorized to grant the rights for the Green Dot trademark usage and our country can not be an exception in this respect.
