Who pays the use of the name "Sarajevo"?

The use of the name Sarajevo is regulated by law, according to the city administration. According to the decision on the use of the coat of arms, the name and the flagship of the flag, all legal entities that contain the word Sarajevo in their name, in any case, must have the approval and pay a certain annual fee.

The amount of compensation is determined according to the number of employees and realized income of the business entity.

"Up to ten workers, 720 KM per year, for legal entities that employ between 10 and 30 people, that is 1,200 KM, while the fee for legal entities with more than 30 employees amounts to 4,800 KM," says Sanjin Smajlovic.

Citizens' associations that do not have the goal of acquiring profit as legal entities pay 100 KM per year, and this is not about Sarajevo as the headquarters of the Association, explained the City of Sarajevo attorney. Does this apply to the use of the city's name on Facebook? The administrator of the FB site "Sarajevo forever", which promotes the beauty of the capital of BiH, states that the city administration has been threatened with quitting the site if it does not pay a certain fee.

"When I told the kind" journalists "that payment of the use of the protected name Sarajevo refers to legal entities, I received the answer that natural persons must pay. When I asked them, should I pay if I gave my child the name of Sarajevo, I received the affirmative answer. if I have to pay the book I write "Sarajevo", the answer was the same, "the site administrator finds" Sarajevo forever ".

In the City Administration, they stress that they did not threaten anyone, but that they were contacted by certain FB web site administrators and groups with the intention of agreeing to use the name, for free, they say, as natural persons are not obliged to pay compensation.

"Physical persons do not pay compensation for the use of the name of Sarajevo. However, if based on this record and monitoring and supervision, we find that certain natural persons, and even legal ones, misuse the name of Sarajevo and use it for some unauthorized purposes, then the obligation of the City of Sarajevo and the Attorney General to act through appropriate procedures in order to prevent possible damage to the city of Sarajevo, "Smajlovic said.

The city of Sarajevo itself has great influence as a brand, says prof. Maja Arslanagić. Knowledge as the first step in branding the city has. Now building brand knowledge is needed, says, and managing social networks in this sense is difficult because there is no legal basis and regulation for it.

"Generally from the aspect of branding, especially on social networks, a certain type of consistency is needed in order for the audience to be exposed to similar information, working according to a particular strategy or branding plan, and if they have the use of a name without control, that consistency can not be achieved", argues Arslanagić .

Otherwise, this decision was made in 2006 and has since been applied.

Had the City of Sarajevo benefited from the issued decisions on the use of the name of Sarajevo, the evidence was 43,900 KM of revenues that were transferred to the city's cash register last year.

• 19 Jan, 2018
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