A South Surrey dentist has dropped his effort to rally business owners’ opposition to an application to trademark the term “Ocean Park.”
Patrick Lum, of Ocean Park Village Dental, announced the decision Thursday, during a meeting of the Ocean Park Business Association.
Lum had hoped to convince fellow members to take an official stand against the application – made by Tom and Coby Cragg of Ocean Park Dental Centre – by way of a letter to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
His decision followed concerns expressed by fellow members and a statement by association president Jill Martyniuk that the issue was not within the OPBA’s mandate.
“It would seem like it was an ill choice on your behalf to have picked a name so close (to another business in the area),” said Al Forbes, owner of Ocean Park Fine Meats. “I think it’s not really appropriate to seem as though you’re riding on the back of someone who’s already established.”
Lum told Peace Arch News last month that trademarking the term would put dozens of area businesses in violation. The Craggs, however, contended Lum’s effort was intended to inflame an 18-month dispute between the two dental offices over the similarity of their names.
Lawyers assured them the trademark step would only affect other dental businesses in the Ocean Park neighbourhood, the Craggs said.
“Mr. Lum is attempting to bully the Ocean Park Business Association into helping him solve a problem that he created,” Tom Cragg told the membership Thursday, describing the OPBA as an “inappropriate forum… to further his own personal gain.”
“This issue… will be resolved in a court of law.”
Lum, after dropping his motions, countered that he just wanted “to be left alone” with regard to his business name, and that there’s “more than enough room” for him to keep it.
In Martyniuk’s statement, she said it is the opinion of the executive “that the trademark issue… is one that involves interpretation by their respective lawyers.”