I have made the point here before that being in a local history group is not all nice cups of tea and cardigans. What should be an interesting and enjoyable hobby can occasionally be spoiled by people who think they are engaged in some kind of dog-eat-dog business world where only the most ruthless succeed. Strange but true. Fortunately, this behaviour has a weakness in that the perpetrators want to keep it out of the public gaze, which makes it a bit like a vampire. When it gets exposed to daylight, it vanishes. So here I am once again throwing the curtains open and letting the sun shine in on more recent silliness.
Last week I was emailed by a person I had never heard of before who owns 'Moonlight Haunted Tours' down in Adelaide. I help run the Moonlight Tours of South Brisbane Cemetery, and this person (without introducing themselves) demanded to know if our 'Moonlight Tours' was a registered business name. Past experience set the alarm bells ringing and I knew straight away where this was all heading. I played dumb and asked why he wanted to know, and sure enough it was suggested to me that our tour name was a "breach of registration of business law". He asserted that our name was "too close" to his registered business name and "may cause some confusion for clients".I refrained from launching into a sarcastic diatribe on the bizarre proposition that anybody could possibly be confused when looking up tours in Adelaide or Brisbane, which are over 2,000 km and four states apart. What I did instead was about 30 seconds of research on the federal government website and found out that:
"Registering a business name does not in itself give you any exclusive rights over the use of that name - only a trade mark can give you that kind of protection."
As I knew this person was up to no good I continued to give non-answers to his questions. Obviously frustrated, he then claimed to have spoken to an officer at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), who allegedly told him that our tour name was illegal as it was too close to his business name. This claim is very strange, as such advice would directly contradict the information available on the ASIC website, where a bold subtitle as clear as day reads "a business name does not give you exclusive trading rights over the name". The alleged advice seems even stranger when you consider that ASIC also list 'Moonlight Tours' as an openly available business name.
By this point I felt the situation was getting increasingly ridiculous so I told him we would be happy to take the required action if he could get ASIC to forward me the information, or perhaps he could point out the relevant section in the legislation himself. If you want to accuse someone of breaking the law, start by pointing out exactly which law it is they have broken. It turned out to be a 'put up or shut up' that has so far resulted in a shut up. I forwarded his email to ASIC anyway, and they can make of it what they will.
All the above is pretty much by the bye, as I had the technical points covered almost from the start and found it more amusing than stressful, but what I still can't understand is the WHY of it all. What motivates someone to try and make life difficult for a group of volunteers, total strangers, running occasional not-for-profit tours on the other side of the country? Especially when his desired outcome would bring no obvious benefit to his business anyway. The mentality behind this behaviour is beyond my comprehension.
This is in fact the third time that something like this has been tried on with us, and each time it was by a different 'paranormal group'. I know some very good people who identify as 'paranormal researchers', but this kind of behaviour by others reflects very poorly on a sector that requires no minimum qualifications, no previous experience, no professional standards, no clean record, no scientific credibility, no industry oversight, and is consequently home to all kinds of charlatanry and schoolyard skullduggery.
We do the Moonlight Tours once or twice a month, we charge a very reasonable $15 per head, and we don't make a cent out of them. Almost all of the money raised is spent on heritage projects, and the rest barely covers basic costs. The tour guides work on Friday nights for free, even though we all have kids at home. The harassment may be water off a duck's back to us, but we really don't appreciate it. So grow up and back off.
