New Delhi: India’s Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the nodal agency to promote Khadi products in the country and around the world, recently secured trademark registrations in three countries – UAE, Mexico and Bhutan, as it seeks to protect the identity of brand Khadi worldwide. In addition to these countries, the KVIC’s trademark applications are pending in 40 countries across the world that include the USA, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil and others.
While KVIC obtained the latest trademark registration in Bhutan on Friday, it secured Khadi trademark registration in UAE on June 28. With this, KVIC has succeeded in securing trademark registration for the first time in a Gulf country. In December last year, KVIC got the trademark registration for Khadi in Mexico. So far KVIC was having Trademark registrations for the word mark KHADI in 6 countries namely Germany, UK, Australia, Russia, China and EU where trademark registrations were granted in certain classes.
With recent trademark registrations in Bhutan, UAE and Mexico, the number of such countries has gone up to nine. In these countries, KVIC has got registrations in various classes that pertain to Khadi fabric, Khadi readymade garments and village industry products like Khadi soaps, Khadi cosmetics, Khadi incense sticks among others. This is for the first time in the history of KVIC that sustained efforts have been made to protect the brand Khadi which was given by Mahatma Gandhi.
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KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said these trademark registrations will prevent any misuse of the brand name Khadi globally. “In recent years, Khadi’s popularity has seen a massive growth in India and abroad. It has, therefore, become very important for KVIC to protect the identity of Khadi and safeguard the interest of consumers and lakhs of Khadi artisans who are manufacturing genuine Khadi products,” Saxena said.
Commenting on recent court battles to prevent the misuse of brand name Khadi, Saxena said, it was for the first time that KVIC has made aggressive efforts to safeguard Khadi from such misuse. “These efforts have yielded significant results and helped Khadi's sales grow significantly in the last few years,” Saxena said, adding efforts are being made to secure trademark registrations in other countries at the earliest.
The development assumes great significance as there have been instances of some private local entities in countries like Mexico and Germany seeking trademark registration for brand name “Khadi” in their respective countries. In Mexico, KVIC challenged the trademark application of ‘One Foundation Oaxaca Ac’ which had applied for the ‘Khadi’ logo. However, the firm did not challenge KVIC’s objections and trademark registration for the word Khadi and Khadi logo was granted in favour of KVIC.
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Similarly, in Germany, KVIC challenged a local company - Best Natural Products GmbH (BNP), which in 2011 already got prior rights in the mark KHADI and related marks in EU and other countries in different classes. After long legal battle and negotiations through the Diplomatic channel with the help of the Ministry of External Affairs, BNP has expressed its willingness to settle the trademark disputes amicably with KVIC.
