THE owner of the Ettamogah franchise has threatened to close the pub and associated businesses at Palmview in an ugly spat over licensing.

Leigh O'Brien served notice on the Ettamogah Pub owner and manager yesterday to cease trading at the hotel, cafe, bottleshop, bakery and garage and told the Daily he would take Supreme Court action to force the closure.

But Ettamogah Pub management said the pub and nearby business were no chance of closing.

Mr O'Brien, whose company Southern Equity owns the rights to the Ettamogah Pub cartoons, concept and characters, has taken exception to the pub continuing to trade after the removal of all Ettamogah signage.

The signage was removed about five weeks ago after Timevale, which owns the pub and Aussie World complex, gave notice to Southern Equity that it was terminating its licence to use the Ettamogah name, concept, design and characters.

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Mr O'Brien claims that Timevale, having terminated its licence, is bound by the licensing agreement to cease trading until the pub and associated buildings are altered so they do not resemble the Ettamogah Pub and buildings made famous in the 1970s Our Mob cartoon series by Ken Maynard.

He said in a statement that Timevale was in a "precarious position" after taking down the signs because the property still looked like the Ettamogah Pub and it needed to disassociate with the Ettamogah brand within 12 weeks "both in design and name".

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"Therefore they will now be required to alter the design of the building completely and probably need to pull the pub down. Taking the sign off the building maintains the image of the brand and of the pub being the Ettamogah," he said.

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"This agreement also covers the cafe and the shops, all of which have been built based on designs found within the Our Mob cartoons and covered again under intellectual property and copyright law."

Pub manager David Thompson disagreed with Mr O'Brien's interpretation of the licensing agreement, although he acknowledged there would have to be alterations and some objects would have to be removed.

"We have to make these changes, some can be immediate, some in due process, but it does not state we have to shut the pub," he said.