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                M. I. L. S.
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91, Rue du Craetveld - Kraatveldstraat 91   Orce Nikolov 28
1120 BRUSSELS, Belgium                      SKOPJE, Macedonia
tel/fax: +32/2/268 18 48                    tel/fax:+38 91 221 842
modem:   +32/2/262 28 97
n.acc: Famibank-Citibank Belgium
       954 8691431 92

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MEDIA RELEASE

Greek government, acting through  Bugnion,  a  Belgian  patents,
trademarks  and  designs  agency,  sent a letter threatening MILS
with court action if it did not stop using the  term  "Macedonia"
in  its  name.  The letter claimed that MILS (Macedonian Informa-
tion and Liaison Service) infringed upon the trade  name  of  the
Greek  operated  Agency  Macedoine Press/Macedonian Press Agency,
which it is claimed was  registered  with  Benelux  countries  on
15/10/92.  However, the trade name Makedonija (Macedonia) was re-
gistered with the Belgian authorities in  1986.  Makedonija  is a
cultural,sporting and religious association set up by Macedonians
from the Republic of Macedonia living  in  Belgium.   Agency  Ma-
cedoine  Press  belongs  to the Ministry of the Prime Minister of
Greece, and deals with information bulletins, journalism...

The letter makes the following declarations: "Reading your  docu-
ment,  it  seems that a lot of "products" are similar to these of
our client. That's why we would like to ask you to avoid all  ac-
tivity that could lead to confusion for the larger public and for
specialists, such as the press...  The use of all names referring
to  "Macedonia" and for this reason leading to confusion with the
marque (trade name) of our client, should be avoided by  you  and
will  lead to court action by our client."  The Director of MILS,
Mr Ljupco Naumovski, said that "if the Greek operated Agency  Ma-
cedoine  Press was distributing similar media documents and news,
then the Greek government would support basic  human  rights  for
ethnic  Macedonians  in  Greece,  and  would  have recognised the
Republic of Macedonia by now".

It is believed the Greek government wants MILS put out of  opera-
tion  because it provides the international media and politicians
with news about the Republic of Macedonia. A recent trial against
two  Macedonian  human  rights activists in Greece was given wide
publicity by MILS, and this angered the Greek  government.   MILS
is a non-government organisation funded by the public, in partic-
ular Australian-Macedonians.

It would be ludicrous to suggest that anyone can  hold  copyright
on a name of a country. For instance, who actually owns the terms
Greece, Europe or evenAmerica?!