A dispute has erupted between two of the agencies involved in the €31.5 million Cliffs of Moher visitor centre over registering the Cliffs of Moher brand as a trademark.
The new centre is to be officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in four weeks.
It emerged yesterday that a Shannon Development subsidiary has lodged a formal objection against an application by Clare County Council to register the Cliffs of Moher brand as a trademark on an EU-wide basis.
The subsidiary, Shannon Castle Banquets and Heritage Ltd (SCBH Ltd), submitted its own application to the Irish Patents Office last November to register the Cliffs of Moher.
Shannon Development is a former partner of the county council in the project, and SCBH Ltd is leasing shop space from the council in the new centre.
The council's project leader for the centre, Ger Dollard, yesterday described Shannon Development's objection as "extraordinary".
He said the council had not been advised by Shannon Development or its subsidiary of the intention to lodge an objection to the trademark, despite the fact that meetings between the two had taken place in December.
"This type of approach is extraordinary, but not without precedent given the objection of the parent company, Shannon Development, to the planning application and their subsequent appeal to An Bord Pleanála," he said.
"As the council is the public authority for the county and is the body who has invested over €31 million in improving facilities and site management at the site I cannot comprehend how another party could justify opposing our application for this particular trademark.
"It is severely disappointing that such an approach would be taken at a point where we are about to formally open a development which has taken 16 years to bring to fruition."
A Shannon Development spokesman said yesterday that the agency and its heritage subsidiary had registered the "Cliffs of Moher" as a trademark many years ago. This had allowed them to use the name on merchandise sold at the agency's commercial outlet at the site. Shannon Development would be happy to share the trademark with the council, but would object to the council having sole ownership, he said.
