No trademark over religious book title, says apex court

NEW DELHI: Nov 25, 2015, DHNS:

 The Supreme Court has held that a person cannot claim as trademark over the name of a holy or religious book for goods or services.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R K Agrawal passed its significant ruling while confirming the decision of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board.

“There are many holy and religious books like Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib, Ramayan etc, to name a few. The answer to the question as to whether any person can claim the name of a holy or religious book as a trade mark for his goods or services marketed by him is clearly ‘NO’,” the bench said.

The case rejected a plea by Lal Babu Priyadarshi, trading as M/s Om Perfumery, Bakerganj, Daldali Road, Patna, who wanted to register a trade mark by name “RAMAYAN” for incense sticks (agarbattis, dhoops) and perfumeries etc.

The court upheld a 2005 decision of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board whereby the board allowed the plea against registration of such a trademark on the claim that the trader added a word 'Om' in order to distinguish his products.