Oscar Awards Protest ‘Oskar Awards'

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is demanding Poland's Association of Folk Artists to stop giving out the People's Oskar. The Academy that hands out Hollywood's Oscar Awards has demanded that the Polish drop their Oskar awards.

However, Waldemar Majcher of the Association of Folk Artists, Poland, on Monday said that they give People's Oskar in the honor of Oskar Kolberg, a 19th-century Polish ethnographer who wrote more than 10,000 Polish folk songs, 1250 folk tales, 670 fairy tales, 2700 proverbs, 350 riddles, 15 folk spectacles and many other ethnographic documents. He died in Kraków in 1890.

The People's Oskar, a metal slab with an engraved image of Jesus, is awarded to individual artists, museums, folk festivals and even a bread fair for the past 10 years.

Majcher said last week he received a letter from Polish lawyers representing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences protesting the use of the name Oscar with its Polish spelling Oskar.

The letter was read to the The Associated Press by Majcher. The letter is from Wardynski and Partners on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has demanded that the Association of Folk Artists stop using Oskar.

The letter is reported to carry the words: verbal trademark Oscar ... is inseparably associated with the Academy Awards. The Academy is angry on Poland's Association of Folk Artists and they don't want anyone else handing out Oscars.

The letter gave us a scare, but we are receiving plenty of encouragement from people, AP quoted Majcher as saying.

According to Majcher, lawyers are preparing a response on behalf of Poland to defend the name People's Oskar.