Thiruvananthapuram: In the trademark row between Kerala State Road Transport Corporation and Karnataka State Road Corporation, CMD of Kerala SRTC Biju Prabhakar said, KSRTC is not ready for an open fight with the Karnataka government in the legal proceedings with Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.
In their Facebook post, KSRTC mentioned they will not engage in any fight with Karnataka over the KSRTC domain and that the government wants the issue to be resolved in an appropriate manner. If necessary, discussions can be held at the secretary level or at the ministerial level. This will be officially communicated to Karnataka.
Karnataka and Kerala are cooperating with each other not only in terms of travel but in all other matters. Therefore, this will be discussed. But the decision taken regarding the online domain, will not be changed.
Read: Bus company to take legal route in trademark row
It is after seven years of legal battle, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation gets KSRTC, Aanavandi and the logo.
Both Karnataka and Kerala SRTCs have been using the acronym KSRTC for many decades now. However, Karnataka RTC registered the acronym and its logo with the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks and issued a notice to Kerala RTC asking it not to use the acronym as they had patented it in 2014.
Kerala SRTC had soon approached the Registry. Kerala had argued that their government had been running their fleet of buses under the acronym of KSRTC since 1965, while Karnataka’s bus services were named so only in 1973.
The precursor to Karnataka RTC was called Mysore Government Road Transport Department (MGRTD) formed in 1948, renamed as Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation in 1973. Sources said while the name can continue, Karnataka SRTC cannot use the acronym ‘KSRTC’.
Read: Karnataka contests Kerala's claim over 'KSRTC' trademark
