Plans voiced by Brasov County Council and Liberal MPs to build an amusement park near Brasov under the Dracula brand may end up in court. The Tourism Ministry claims the property right over Dracula brand, as it has registered it with OSIM (The State Office for Inventions and Brands).
The ministry warns that it will file a lawsuit requesting 10 million dollars in damages, if the Brasov authorities do not give up their plans.
National Liberal Party senators Nicolae Popa and Hermann Fabini, accompanied by Aristotel Cancescu, chairman of Brasov County Council, on Tuesday presented what they called the advantages of locating "Dracula Park" near Rasnov Town, as compared to the "Dracula Park Sighisoara" project, promoted by the Tourism Ministry.
According to Cancescu, if the Tourism Ministry is not impressed with these arguments, the park may be built separately from the ministry's project.
Tourism minister Dan Matei Agathon on Tuesday deemed the Liberal's proposal as "a huge idiocy" and accused them of plotting "the biggest fraud in Romanian tourism."
State secretary with the Tourism Ministry Alin Burcea says that the ministry has already set the location of "Dracula Park," which will be certainly built at Sighisoara. According to Burcea, Brasov inhabitants are free to build their own park, provided they do not use the Dracula logo.
On the other hand, the Liberal MPs, who came up with the idea of building the theme park near Rasnov, say that the Sighisoara location presents economic risks and can lead to failure, especially since estimated investments amount to 31.6 million dollars.
After learning that "Dracula Land," the original name for the amusement park to be built near Sighisoara, had already been registered with OSIM, the Tourism Ministry registered four variants of logos starting with Dracula to make sure that no one will use the name of the Transylvanian character again, Burcea claims.
Starting with November 21, the Tourism Ministry will issue shares worth five million dollars on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, through S.C. Fondul pentru Dezvoltare Turistica Sighisoara, the company that will manage Dracula Park. Under these circumstances, "serious damages can ensue from confusing the population with a new Dracula Park or Dracula Land (...)," said Burcea.
According to Tourism minister Dan Matei Agathon, the Liberals want the park location to be changed because "they bought land in the Bran area when the locality was on the list of the five possible locations for Dracula Park, and now they are trying to initiate a deceiving project, starting from a government project that has been in the works for two years."
Agathon also said that he held a protocol signed together with Predeal, Bran and Rasnov Town Halls, which refers to the possibility of building an amusement park, but does not mention the Dracula name.
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