The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has obtained the ‘Khadi’ word mark registration in 26 classes whereas the ‘Khadi India’ Hindi and English logos have been registered under 27 classes each respectively. This is primarily to protect misuse of the Khadi India brand name by vendors of meat and alcohol.
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has procured new trademark registrations for five of its most commonly used symbols, primarily to protect misuse of the Khadi India brand name by vendors of meat and alcohol. KVIC procured trademark registrations under NICE classifications for Trademarks of Goods and Services of the Trade
Marks Act, 1999.
Khadi trademarks have been registered under classes 20, 29 and 33, which mainly include items seen at odds with the Gandhian philosophy. The Class 20 of the trademark includes horn, bone, ivory and whalebone among other materials of wood, cork, reed, cane etc. Class 29 includes edible products such as milk and oil products, also including meat, fish, poultry and game; meat extracts; eggs etc. Class 33 includes alcoholic beverages, except beer; alcoholic preparations for making beverages.
“The decision to register the Khadi trademarks under classes 20, 29 and 33 were taken to prevent any unauthorised use of the trademarks which are in the negative list of activities of KVIC. Protection of a brand includes prevention of misuse and unauthorised use by a third party. Imagine what negative impact would be produced if some third party individual or entity misuses ‘Khadi’ to name his meat or alcohol shop,” KVIC chairman VK Saxena said.
KVIC has obtained the ‘Khadi’ wordmark registration in 26 classes whereas the ‘Khadi India’ Hindi and English logos have been registered under 27 classes each respectively. The ‘Sarvodaya’ wordmark is also registered under 6 classes. KVIC has filed applications for the ‘Khadi Mark’ logo of ‘Charkha’ for registration as ‘Certification Mark’. Besides, KVIC has also filed applications for ‘Well Known Mark’ and ‘Geographical Indication’ mark for the ‘Khadi’ wordmark. “Due to the negligence of earlier governments, some private entities managed to register these symbols to fulfill their personal material motives. It is our duty to prevent any form of wrongful use of the Khadi trademarks for products which Khadi does not want to associate with,” Saxena said.
KVIC is learnt to have shot off 200 notices last month alone on cases of misuse of its brand name. KVIC is also fighting cases in several countries for violation of the Khadi Mark Regulations.
