Governments mobilise to protect Anzac name

By KEVIN TAYLOR

The Australian and New Zealand Governments are moving to protect the word "Anzac" overseas after Turkish authorities rejected a bid by a company to brand food and drinks with the name.

Associate Minister of Culture and Heritage Judith Tizard said yesterday that both Governments would go to the World Intellectual Property Organisation to seek international protection for the word.

If the application is accepted, Anzac will gain the same protection as terms such as "Red Cross".

The 164 countries that are party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property would refuse applications to register and use the word Anzac as a trademark.

The name, meaning the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, was coined for the troops from both countries who landed in Turkey on April 25, 1915.

Judith Tizard said there was no suggestion that anyone was trying to misuse the Anzac name overseas.

The Turkish company had wanted to trademark "Anzak" - that country's equivalent of Anzac - for use on dozens of items ranging from carbonated drinks to salt.

Restrictions on commercial use of the word stretches back to 1916 in New Zealand and 1921 in Australia.

Returned Services Association spokesman Bill Hopper welcomed the Government's move, saying the word was unique and needed protection.

Anzac had been protected in New Zealand since August 31, 1916, following a request from the RSA, he said.

It is currently protected under the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act 1981.

"Now in 2003, with a bit of luck it will be protected throughout the world," Mr Hopper said. "And not before time."

The Anzac biscuit, made by several companies, was a generic term and not a trademark, he said.

That name dates to 1915, when mothers made the biscuits for their sons serving in the Gallipoli campaign.

Judith Tizard said she did not know why a Turkish company had wanted to use the Anzac name.

"Anzac is a word that is used in Turkey and around the Gallipoli campaign - which was also an important coming of age and creation of nationhood for Turkey."

She said the Turkish, Australian and New Zealand Governments all thought the use of the name would have been inappropriate. She presumed Anzac had positive connotations in Turkey, as it did in Australia and New Zealand.

"The battle with the Anzacs is one of their central cultural identities. The Turks obviously feel as strongly about the word and the protection of it as we do."