The Khadi and Village Industries Commission approached the High Court alleging that Khadi Design Council of India and Miss India Khadi Foundation were infringing its trademark
The Delhi High Court recently passed an interim order restraining two private entities from using the KHADI trademark for hosting pageants and other events after Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) filed a suit for trademark infringement.
KVIC had approached the High Court stating that they became aware of infringement of their mark in December 2019 when the defendants organised the National Khadi Designers Awards, 2019 and the Miss India Khadi event at Goa, in which they were using the word mark KHADI as well as the logo.
Justice C Hari Shankar held that the two firms — Khadi Design Council of India and Miss India Khadi Foundation – infringed the trademark KHADI and indulged in passing off.
It was the defendants’ case that the intellectual property rights over the term “Khadi” would vest with every person who is associated with Khadi. They said that being publici juris, the Khadi mark cannot be appropriated exclusively by the KVIC.
It was also argued that the defendants are neither engaged in manufacturing or weaving of any Khadi fabric nor in sale of any finished clothes and the designers associated with them purchased clothes or fabric only from authorised outlets of the KVIC.
