Karnataka retains the legal right to use KSRTC abbreviation

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday cleared all the legal hurdles for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to use the abbreviation KSRTC and offered ownership of all its trademarks, according to a release by KSRTC, issued on Friday. 

Kerala and Karnataka have been using the KSRTC abbreviation since 1965 and 1973 respectively for their state-owned public transport corporations.

According to a KSRTC official, the KSRTC went on to obtain trade mark certificates and copyrights to avoid confusion for people and to maintain the good name the corporation had gained over the years when most of the private players came into the picture and started using similar logos and names.

The KSRTC obtained trade mark certificates from the Trade Mark Registry of the Government of India in 2013 to use the acronym KSRTC. Copyright was also secured from the Registrar of Copyrights of the Government of India for the use of the KSRTC logo and the Gandabherunda art.  Thereafter, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation challenged the same before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in Chennai.

The release by KSRTC stated, “KSRTC contended that the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation is aware of the use of the mark by the Karnataka RTC for 42 years and hence, they are not entitled to apply for a declaration that the registration of the later trade mark is invalid since they have acquiesced the usage of the mark by Karnataka RTC.”

The release noted that the Kerala RTC too has obtained registration of the marks in 2019 claiming prior use. The matters which were pending before the IPAB were transferred to the High Court of Madras at Chennai after the abolition of IPAB by the Central Government.

A release by the KSRTC said that the High Court of Madras on December 12 dismissed the applications filed by Kerala RTC and therefore, the Karnataka RTC has no legal hurdle to use the name KSRTC in future.