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whether a person can use the name of a religious book to sell his/her goods or not? this question was dealt with by the Hon'ble Supreme court in the case of:-
Lal Babu Priyadarshi .... Appellant(s)
Versus
Amritpal Singh .... Respondent(s)138 of 2006, Supreme Court)
The appellant in the present case had applied for registration of the mark “Ramayan” with the device of a crown in reference to incense sticks and perfumeries (class 3). This application was challenged by the respondent whose main contention was that since the mark was a reputation of a spiritual book, no single trader could claim exclusivity over it.
The Assistant Registrar of Trade Marks had held that this mark was capable of distinguishing the goods sold by the appellants and since it was not included in the list of marks that are deemed as not registerable (by order dated 31.02.2004), the respondent’s opposition was dismissed. However, the IPAB put aside this order and therefore the appellant appealed to the Supreme Court.
The only issue to be dealt by the Supreme court was whether the “registration of the word Ramayan as a trademark, being the name of a Holy Book of Hindus, is prohibited under Section 9(2) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999”?
Answering this question the court emphatically held “The answer to the question on whether a person can claim the name of a holy book as a trademark for his goods or services marketed by him is clearly negative”. Also, the court very specifically adds that if there was a prefix or a suffix to the word Ramayan which was of an equivalent “length of the word Ramayan then Ramayan may lose its significance as a spiritual book and it make be considered for registration as a trademark”. This was one of the grounds on which the decision of the Assistant Registrar was dismissed.
Additionally, during this particular case, registration of the Ramayan mark was also denied on the bottom that the mark itself has lost distinctiveness since the evidence showed that there have been 20 other traders who were using the word ‘Ramayan’ for similar goods.
Examining the blanket prohibition
The blanket prohibition against registration of holy or religious books as a trademark requires to be examined. It is not clear from where and counting on what judge involves this conclusion. The decision seems to suggest that “using the exclusive name of the book Ramayan, forgetting it registered as a trademark for any commodity couldn't be permissible under the Act which may be a clear indication that he's taking advantage of gods and goddesses, which is otherwise not permitted“. Surely, if the name of a spiritual or holy book isn't permitted to be registered then by extension the names of all the gods and goddesses also will not be permitted. Hinduism itself is a religion of the many religious/holy books and lots of more gods! There are probably over 30 crore Hindu gods itself and there are more than 100 Upanishads, around 40 Puranas, Vedas, post-Vedic texts and I am certain the list goes on and on and may never even end. Considering all the religions in India, it's dizzying to fathom the number of words absolutely barred from registration as a trademark by this judgment.
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