THE Jamaica 50 Secretariat’s licensing and merchandising division has been quietly turning its logo into a revenue machine by charging commercial entities at home and abroad for its use.

“There is a commercial programme around the logo. First of all, we had to spend some time registering it. The logo is now registered and protected outside of Jamaica, across the UK, across Europe, across the whole US. We are now in the process of finalising registration in China and the Far East in terms of protecting it. So a lot of progress has been made in that regard,” Jamaica 50 Project Director Robert Bryan said in an address to journalists at the Jamaica Observer Press Club on Thursday.

There are now 10 licensees, eight of which have worldwide rights to produce a wide range of commercial goods which will be sold with the logo on them.

Bryan said in just two short weeks, the Secretariat had earned over a million dollars from selling the rights to use the specially designed logo. More revenue is expected to come in short order as the contracts for multiple commercial organisations are royalty-based. This means more money will flow into the Secretariat’s bank account as more of the specially marked products sell.

Money is also expected to be made with the selling of a commemorative pin for Jamaica 50 which incorporates the logo. That should be made available around the launch period of the campaign in the latter third of June. That collectors’ item is expected to retail for $500 and the US equivalent overseas, with the target being to sell over a million pins.

Major global drink, food and clothing manufacturers are also in dialogue about obtaining licenses to use the Jamaica 50 logo.

One of the major international companies already using it is Hennessy, which recently launched its limited edition Jamaica 50 cognac to commemorate this country’s anniversary, although the fee for use of the logo was waived in this special case.

“We gave Hennessy the rights for the return on the value of what that brings in terms of exposure,” Bryan explained. “Hennessy put that on the bottle, it’s a worldwide promotion, it’s a limited edition. We can’t pay for that stuff. Mr Hennessy himself came to Jamaica. Coming out of that, there are companies that are producing high-end chocolates in Europe that have now come wanting to combine those elements. Some pretty big Jamaican companies have been given some great ideas and have now come to the table with that.”

Bryan, who headed Jamaica’s preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007, also revealed that there are film distribution companies, one in China which just got the rights to distribute the Marley Movie, which has applied to use the logo as part of its promotions. Also, media companies want to be licensed to use the logo to market aspects of their programming.

“There is a company that manages athletes that wants to actually put the logo on their athletes, a significant number of whom are Jamaican,” Bryan said, while remaining tightlipped about the names of these firms.

The Secretariat has received requests and applications for use of the logo from proud Jamaicans in the far reaches of the globe, particularly from Jamaica 50 committees in Northern Ireland, St Kitts, Scotland, Geneva, and Ghana, all wanting to be connected to the anniversary celebrations, he said.

“We have just communicated with a company which was using the logo on a vest, which we believe gave us really good exposure. They weren’t even necessarily exploiting it. We were able to contact them and tell them they needed to bring things in line, as a result we gave them the proper logo and at least the logo was properly represented,” said Bryan.

He said he really hopes Jamaicans understand the long reach of the Jamaica 50 logo as a part of Brand Jamaica and what that achievement represents.

“I am hoping that it will be part of the legacy of Jamaica 50, because we understand intellectual property rights and protecting those elements. It isn’t enough to just create a logo and have it out there, because then people will have access to it and will just go ahead and use it. We have had to spend considerable time trying to backtrack and taking the legal steps to protect it,” he said.

He explained that the Secretariat has been working with the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office to ensure that there is a built-in way to continue the copyright process so that Jamaica eventually establishes an airtight brand protection policy.

“In many ways, it’s almost breaking new ground, we’re a country that has such a strong brand and we seem to be a little challenged in understanding how to protect the country side of the brand,” said Bryan. “We probably understand more in an individual commercial company way, but we have to come up to speed in protecting it that way.”