An application to trademark the term “Ocean Park” has one area businessman scrambling to block the move.
Patrick Lum, of Ocean Park Village Dental, said Tuesday he gave notice of seven motions he wants discussed at next month’s meeting of the Ocean Park Business Association, with regards to the application by Tom and Coby Cragg of Ocean Park Dental Centre.
Lum says that trademarking “Ocean Park” would place about 50 businesses in violation, and he wants the OPBA to take a stand by sending a letter opposing the application to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).
However, the Craggs say Lum’s effort is a “red herring” – intended to inflame an 18-month dispute between the two dental offices over the similarity of their business names.
Lawyers have assured them the move would only affect other dental businesses in South Surrey’s Ocean Park neighbourhood, they said.
“It should only affect him and us and that’s the whole point of it,” Coby Cragg said Wednesday.
“As soon as he changes the name, we have no intention to use it for anything. I would not want to do anything to hurt Ocean Park. We just want (Lum) to make his name less similar to ours.”
The Craggs say the similarity between the names has led to patients, supplies and claims going to the wrong office, and that their requests to Lum to make his name “less similar” have been ignored.
“What we’re trying to do is protect our reputation,” Tom Cragg said, who noted their claim to Ocean Park Dental Centre goes back to 1974.
Lum argued that no one should have exclusive rights over the phrase, and that the Craggs have no reason to worry about the two offices being confused.
In an email to Lum, OPBA president Jill Martyniuk said the board would prefer that the dentists resolve the matter without involving the association.
The OPBA next meets on June 13.
Officials with CIPO were not able to respond to questions from Peace Arch News regarding the trademark application process by press deadline Wednesday.