The ghodiwala may well have, as you will discover later in this essay. But an obscure company, listed on the Mezzanine Floor of Indira Nagar in Bangalore, is on its way already.
Described as Vistara Voyages*, the outfit may be the thorn in the flesh of Air Vistara, the long-awaited Tata-Singapore Airlines dream venture to run a full-service airline in India. The overseer of trademarks has slapped an objection on the airlines request to own the Vistara name.
In a classic David vs. Goliath manouver, this company* listed in the business of voyages, chauffeur services, immigration and bus rentals has an application pending for rights to use the word “Vistara” in India’s trademark office since September 12, 2014**.
This may well be an afterthought - from public records, the application by Tata-SIA, made in the same class of goods and services, made on June 2, 2014**, predates Vistara Voyages’ by 13 weeks. But a potential spoiler, this David from Indira Nagar may well be. Indian law, with few exceptions, stands by the principle of who came into the room first.
For dummies, even the venerable Financial Times of the UK# hasn’t been able to assert its trade mark in India because Bennett, Coleman & Co., publishers of The Economic Times, had already got themselves the “FT” trademark in the same class. Of course, if The FT wished to enter one of the other 44 classes of trade marks (FT Airlines, anyone!) this could, atleast in theory, still be possible.
But this column isn’t about FT vs. FT. It’s isn’t about squatting either – Vistara Voyages of Bangalore claims to have been in business since the last 6 years. We’re here to flag unending woes of marquee investors thanks to quaint rules of the game##.
Take Class 39 of the trade mark rules as case in point.If you read the explanatory ambit of this class, its span is across air transportation to barges and trains, to flower delivery, and transport by horses!
Yes, transportation by horses features in the same class as transportation by air!In simple words, a prescient ghodiwala, with the right paperwork for the name, Vistara, could have stumped Mr Tata-SIA’s claim to be called “Vistara.” This doesn’t take away inherent egalitarianism in this bizarre analogy. Nor does it excuse the laziness on part of those who do word matches for a living.
But now that the objection has been raised, I must go back 20 springs when Karamjit Singh of Singapore Airlines was straddling the corridors of Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. He had in his hand application papers for a 40:40:20 airline in India in JV with the Tata and the public. I wrote a Page 1 exclusive for The TOI, armed with background that Singh’s boss Cheong Choon Kong had the blessings of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, no less. later, Dr Cheong relocated the ebullient Sikh to India as CEO-designate.
The airline, as we all know, got plenty of press, but never could disentangle from our red tape. Singh later bid for a pie in Air-India, all to no avail.Several years later, I met him in the foyer of Taj Mansingh Hotel. He was sad – for that very night, he was leaving India for good.
Two decades later - if the proverbial ‘ghodiwala’ offers a contention that’s good in extant law - a shaky trade mark has significant implications.“Very significant, because (then) everything around Air Vistara’s value proposition will need to be changed,” says Kapil Kaul of CAPA, the region’s leading aviation advisory.
(The columnist is a former editor. He works in RIl. The views expressed are personal. Follow @therohitbansal. #DailyPioneer).
Notes:
*http://www.companywiki.in/wiki/vistara-voyages-(india)-private-limited.html
**http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch2/tmsearch.aspxIJtn=20637090&st=Wordmark
#http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6c2e72fc-6c03-11e4-b939-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3RzhsD4QZ
##http://www.ipindia.nic.in/tmr_new/tmr_notice/classification_GoodsServices_29November2013.pdf
and http://ipindiaonline.gov. in/tmrpublicsearch2/classfication_goods_service.htm
###http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch2/tmsearch.aspxIJtn=20637090&st=Wordmark
NB: Air Vistara has asserted a trade mark for under Class 39 for providing: “Transport; packaging and storage of goods; travel arrangement; scheduled domestic and international passenger air transport services; Full Service Scheduled Passenger Airline Services, belly-hold cargo services.”
Vistara Voyages claims to offer, under Class 39 too, travel, packing and stroing of goods, railway, airline and bus bookings and rentals, immigration and visa services, cruises and chauffer services. A senior in the company, wishing to remain anonymous, said their main business was “travel integration.”