Carwash is in trouble because of spongebob trademark

DANNIEL BEK soaks up criticism of his carwash business - from complaining neighbours to a litigious council and now an angry multinational media company - with one simple line of defence: "It's just a sponge," he said.

As with other complaints about his operation, Mr Bek will not budge. The character he devised to promote his business is just a sponge, he said, and not the Nickelodeon character to which it bears an uncanny resemblance, Spongebob Square Pants.

"It's a piece of sponge that I cut myself, I wanted to make him look like a sponge to promote the business," he said.

"There's a big difference, my character is like a greyish colour, not yellow and it's totally different. The mouth, the eyes - it's totally different. It looks more like a turtle."

Not everyone sees it that way. A spokeswoman for Nickelodeon said the company was investigating the Sydney Carwash Cafe on King Street in Newtown.

"Our legal team is looking into it because they don't have authorisation to use Spongebob," she said. "It's a Nickelodeon trademark, there's no arrangement for it to be used in that way."

It is the latest in a string of complaints about the operation, which began when Mr Bek set up the business in October 2007.

Since then, a development application has been refused, Mr Bek was then defeated at the Land and Environment Court and has to face the court again next March for contempt hearings for not complying with orders.

And a council spokesman said the business had also racked up a sizeable list of fines.

But even the prospect of a legal challenge from a multinational company has not dampened Mr Bek's enthusiasm to keep his business going.

"If you look at the local environment plan, it's not an illegal carwash," he said.

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Band Geek said:

If that is a turtle, then I'm a dirty skunk and The Cheat is a striped green rabbit with two butts.

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