No Trademark over religious book title, says Supreme Court.

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 grant sahib, Ramayana, 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 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 trademark by name (RAMAYAN) for incense
sticks 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.