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Jamaica 50 Secretariat warns against Illegal use of Logo

Director of the Jamaica 50 Secretariat, Robert Bryan, is warning that persons could face legal action if they use the Jamaica 50^th anniversary logo without permission.

Mr. Bryan, who was speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ held on May 1 at the agency’s head office in Kingston, said the logo, which has been rebranded with a new trademark and carries the slogan, ‘Proudly Celebrating Jamaica 50’, is protected by copyright law.

He said that Secretariat had seen evidence of the “lack of control” in the use of the logo at the recently held ‘Expo Jamaica 2012’ staged by the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association, and said that the Secretariat will be putting measures in place “to protect the commercial arrangements that are in place."

“We intend to take steps to try to prevent that. Hopefully, we can do that in a non-contentious way, because the approach we have taken is to offer the new brand identity and make the logo available in as easy a manner as possible…the idea is to get people included rather than to exclude,” he stated.

The Jamaica 50^th logo is a trademark of the Government of Jamaica that has been registered in Jamaica, United States of America, Canada and the European Union.

Mr. Bryan said the Secretariat is in the process of completing applications for trademark in China. “All the various elements are in place and we are in the final stages of making sure that the process is completed to cover all the loopholes and it makes no sense doing that at relatively great cost if we don’t intend to enforce it,” he argued.

Persons, who wish to use it, must contact the Secretariat at the Ministry of Youth and Culture, 4-6 Trafalgar Road, Kingston at 978-7654/5117/5122 or 978-2067. They can also send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , outlining the intended use of the logo.

Persons found using it on any merchandise, product, service or advertising without prior permission, could be liable for legal action. Mr. Bryan pointed out that the Secretariat will first contact persons to inform them of the breach before enforcing the rights of the protected trademark.

“The idea is to contact persons where we see breaches to inform that ‘you are in breach’ and the normal process is to write to the person … and to enforce the rights of the protected trademark,” he said.

Mr. Bryan said that persons, who were given permission to use the old logo, are being contacted to make the necessary changes.

“We have contacted everybody that we are able to …for those persons, who have got permission to use the logo with the old tagline, it is just a matter of swopping and making sure you have the correct one,” he stated.

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