Can Religious Symbols Be Registered As Trademarks?

Dec 2022

Are you planning to register religious symbols as trademarks? Well, you should research thoroughly to understand the use of religious symbols as trademarks. You have to consider the sentiments of people before you plan to use regions symbol for your business. India being a secular country encourages different citizen follows different religions, practicing it and yet maintaining complete harmony.

People have great faith in the religion they follow and they are also the believer of rituals, customs, norms and beliefs. Owing to this, the religious symbols are a vital part of religion and people’s belief on it. It can be used as trademark under any cost as people are connected religiously and emotionally with the symbols. Due to these grounds, some trades wish to use it to catch attract of customers on emotional grounds. But can the religious symbol of trademark be registered?

Use of religious symbol as trademarks

As per the trademark act of 1999, section 9, trademark is thoroughly examined before it is registered for the business. The section clause indicates that the trademark cannot be registered as it contains such information or words that may hurt others’ sentiments or emotions. Therefore, the religious symbols are prohibited for any commercial use. It relates to people faith, religious belief, emotion and others that can harm the symbol. Therefore, it cannot be registered and there arises a chance of refusal of such grounds. As the symbols are common, it tends to create confusion among consumers. Also, if one symbol has been registered only one owner can exercise exclusive rights while other opting for the symbol cannot use the rights.

As a result of this, there are different problems relating to the use of religious symbol as trademarks. One such instance is that as per Court, Krishna is name of a deity and it cannot be used for monopoly purpose. This is also the case with other symbols. The main idea behind this is to negate the use of a religious symbol for business purpose. This way, it gets involved in public domain and should not be available for commercial use.

Is religious sign of trademark accepted?

The registration of trademark is controversial and there should be necessary balance between the use of the trademark by the owner and its function. The main idea behind this is to offer protection to the goods and service that the company caters to. Religious signs are part of common use and there can be similarity in the use of marks that the brand owners opt for registration.

According to some law, it permits the religious or commercial organization to use any religious sign as a trademark. However, this type of trademarks registration is applicable as long it does not conflict any interest of others. A sign having secondary meaning may be of great use for trade purpose. So, when choosing religious symbol as trademark for business, you need to make the correct choice. If you register it, make sure that it does not hurt other’s sentiments.

Trending Blogs
Can Religious Symbols Be Registered As Trademarks?
Are you planning to register religious symbols as trademarks? Well, you should research thoroughly to understand the use of religious symbols as trademarks. You have to consider the sentiments of people before you plan to use regions symbol for your business. India being a secular country encourages different citizen follows different religions, practicing it and […]
Read More
Why Is Protection of Geographical Indication or Designation of Origin Essential?
Having knowing regarding geographical indication along with designation of origin is something that is of great need these days. Geographical indication or GI indicates a symbol, name or sign relating to a product that corresponds to a definite geographical origin, product’s features, qualities that are due from the origin. To make a sign work as […]
Read More
The Common Law Protection Of Trade Secrets And The Need For A Statue
Introduction: A trade secret is anything you use in your business that gives you an advantage over your competitors. A trade secret can be a recipe, process, formula, strategy, technique or device that your competitors do not know, do not have, and cannot use. With development in technology, as well as the ease of sharing, […]
Read More
Protection of Acronyms under Trademark Law
It is known that acronyms are the first letters of a long phrase of words combined together. On the other hand, trademark is about a mark that shall help distinguish the product or service of goods or service from the rest of the items. Therefore, it can be said that an acronym can be registered […]
Read More
Protection Folklores India Intellectual Property Rights
India is a land of diversity when it comes to folk and ethnic culture with hundreds of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups with diverse origins and lifestyles that, over time, intermingled in part and remained untouched in parts over centuries. Perception about folklore differs in India, mainly associated with tribals and simple rural people, rather […]
Read More
Intellectual Property Rights in the Era of Counterfeit Goods
The industry of counterfeited products has taken shape due to the desire of customers to get hands-on high quality item at reasonable rates. They have great satisfaction in this and this is where the counterfeited goods are made available in the market. Different world markets are full of counterfeited products ranging from cosmetics, electronics, footwear, […]
Read More
The Clash Of Jurisdiction Of CCI And TRAI
Overlapping Jurisdiction The Competition Act, 2002 read with section 18 of the legislation delegates to the Competition Commission of India (the “CCI”) the duty of “promoting and sustaining competition” in the Indian economy. This implies that the CCI will have principal jurisdiction to regulate conditions of competition in the relevant market of India. Whereas, Section […]
Read More
US and India to join hands on the grounds of Intellectual Property Rights
After US President Donald Trump’s visit in India from February 24 to 25th February, India and the US have opted for an agreement relating to intellectual property rights or IPR. As a result of this, the cabinet sanctioned MoU with the US pertaining to IPRs, relevant to information and broadcasting as has been stated by […]
Read More
PTAB Should Not Disapprove Claims on the Grounds of Indefiniteness in IPR
Federal Circuit has disapproved of arguments of claims that show any reason other than anticipation pertaining to party procedures. Federal Circuit has rejected the challenge shown by Samsung Electronics America, Inc. The company challenged that PTAB can disapprove claims that are considered indefinite in IPR. Samsung has been charged on the grounds of infringing U.S. […]
Read More
Intellectual Property Glance
The discussion on intellectual property starts with distributing it into three categories for the same of convenience and clarity. The product of intellectual efforts: The product of intellectual effort could be tangible or intangible encompassing such outcomes as literary creations, artistic creations, books, music, song, dance, drama, sculpture, paintings and even computer programs. It must […]
Read More
X
Download Firm Profile