Glenbrier Construction has employed an Oscar-style image to promote its new Navan development, Academy Square. Billboards erected in the town to advertise the 30m development feature a statuette that bears an uncanny resemblance to the iconic Hollywood trophy, but the company insists that sufficient alterations have been made to avoid copyright problems.

However, the Oscar Academy, based in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, is notoriously protective of its prized emblem, and has in the past taken legal action on numerous occasions in order to block companies using the statuette for promotional purposes. A spokeswoman for the Academy said that permission has never been granted for any company to use the image of the Oscar.

"It is a trademarked image and it is for our use exclusively, " she said. "No company is allowed to use the image of the Oscar. If any company did ask for permission, it would be refused because we have never granted permission for anyone else to use the image."

The Academy's assistant legal counsel Scott Miller this weekend told the Sunday Tribune: "We were previously unaware of this billboard in Navan. The Academy of course carefully safeguards its intellectual properties."

The Academy would "need time to examine this matter further" before making any official comment, he said.

However, according to John Donnelly of Glenbrier Construction, the Oscar on Academy Square is not the same as the Oscar used by the Hollywood Academy.

"There are several versions of the Oscar image that you can buy because they are not the same as the Oscar, " he said. "We bought that image and it is not the same."

Although Donnelly was unable to point out the differences between the two images, he did say that minor alterations had been made.

Academy Square is one of the largest housing developments in Navan, which, incidentally, lays claim to Hollywood star Pierce Brosnan, who thus far in his career has failed to win an Oscar statuette. Of the 110 one and two-bedroom apartments in the complex, most were sold out on the first day of sale, with just a handful still remaining. The complex also includes retail and commercial units, as well as a childcare centre.