Govt: No patent on Mount Kilimanjaro

Source@www.dailymail.co.uk

Attorney General Frederick Werema said yesterday that it was not wrong for a Kenyan air transport company or any other party to use Mount Kilimanjaro as a business symbol.

He said Kenya Airways or any other entity can use the tourist attraction as a symbol “because Tanzania has not taken out a patent for the mountain”.

He was reacting to a question by Same East MP Anne Kilango-Malecela, who wanted to know whether it was in order for a Kenyan passenger jet to bear the symbol of Africa’s highest mountain.

She demanded a government statement on advertisements carried by the Kenyan plane, which suggested that the mountain was in Kenya.

“Honourable Speaker, I have seen a Kenya Airways plane bearing Mount Kilimanjaro as a symbol and yet the government is silent...the mountain is in Tanzania and is a leading tourist attraction,”said Mrs Kilango-Malecela.

Source@equatorial-safaris.com

Mr Werema said the Kenyans had committed no offence. “It is true there is such a plane moving around with images of Mount Kilimanjaro, but there is no problem because the mountain can also be viewed from Kenya’’ he said.

The AG said there were a number of factors that had to be considered as far as ownership of property was concerned. They include copyright, trademark and patent.

Mrs Kilango-Malacela’s query came during the questions and answers session when she asked a supplementary question after Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Sanya (Mji Mkongwe-CUF) had wanted to know when scheduled flights between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma would begin.

He said charter flights between the two destinations were “very expensive”.

Transport deputy minister Charles Tizeba said the government was currently encouraging air transport firms to launch regular flights between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma.

“We are now in talks with Flight Link which will soon introduce a 30-passenger plane that will be flying between Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Dodoma,’’ he said.

Dr Tizeba was optimistic that the cost of travelling by air between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma would fall significantly once the flights were introduced.

Written By The Citizen Reporter

Source@TheCitizen