Costa Rica(R)?

TRAVEL AGENCIES, TOUR COMpanies and hotel owners in Costa Rica are learning far too much about trademark and patent laws these days. Local travel agency Tikal Tours got the ball rolling with its decision to enforce its 1985 trademark of the word ecotourism(R). The agency's legal representative has sent out hundreds of threatening emails warning of lawsuits if tour promotions include ecotourism(R).

A similar battle has disrupted the calm of Costa Rica's towering forest canopies. Canadian Darren Hreniuk, who has both a patent and a trademark on a wire, harness and pulley operation now known as a canopy tour(R), is in the process of suing at least ten operators he says copied his idea. Hreniuk says it took him years to put an old apparatus to a new and innovative use. He adds that not only are the pirate operations breaking the law, they are also putting people's lives at risk.

But opponents say the apparatus is just an adaptation of techniques that have been around for centuries. "The troops of General Maximo Blanco, who fought the battle of La Trinchera in 1860, got from shore to shore with something just like a canopy tour, says former Costa Rican President Rodrigo Carazo, who set up his own treetop expedition in his ecotourist reserve Villa Blanca two years ago.

"I publicly challenge [Tikal Tours owner] Bary Roberts to produce the documentation he used to register the word," says Michael Medill, a hotel owner who has been warned about using ecotourism(R) in any promotions. "Had known that you could trademark ecotourism(R), I would have trademarked rafting(R) when started running rivers in Costa Rica in 1978," says Michael Kaye, owner of Costa Rica Expeditions. "Come to think of it, it would be nice to own birdwatching(R)."