The ANC has filed an urgent high court application to stop the breakaway Cope movement from using the name, Congress of the People, Cope's attorney Deon Bouwer confirmed on Wednesday.

He said the ANC had asked the head of the Pretoria High Court, Judge Jerry Shongwe, for a hearing in the week of December 8 to 12, only days ahead of Cope's Bloemfontein founding conference.

Shongwe, he said, had however asked all parties to meet at his office on December 2 to try to find a suitable date.

Bouwer said this could prove extremely difficult, as Cope's counsel of choice were busy with other matters.

"One respects all parties' rights to approach the court on an urgent basis, but I think presently this approach is not warranted," he said. "The ANC has created its own urgency."

Bouwer said the ANC had also joined the Independent Electoral Commission as a respondent, seeking to prevent it from registering Cope as a party name.

He said the ANC had abandoned its claim that it held the sole right to the use of Congress of the People on the basis of its involvement in the 1955 gathering at Kliptown.

Now it was arguing that the name would lead to confusion between parties.

Cope, Bouwer said, disputed both the urgency and the factual basis of the ANC's application, which meant evidence would have to be led. It was busy drawing up replying papers.

He said the ANC was seeking a permanent rather than a temporary interdict, which meant it would have to prove it had no other satisfactory remedy, that there was a reasonable apprehension that it would suffer harm if the order was not granted, and that there was a clear right that was being infringed.

Bouwer said there was in fact an objection process under way in the IEC.

Though three members of the public had formally objected to Cope's name, the ANC had chosen not to lodge an objection.

ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte confirmed that the party served the papers on Cope and the IEC on Tuesday, and that it had asked for a hearing in the week of December 8.

She said the basis of the ANC's application was that no-one should "own" a historical event in South Africa, and that no political party should lay claim to the Kliptown congress.