Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has secured trademark registrations in three countries — Bhutan, UAE and Mexico. This is a big stride towards protecting the identity of brand “Khadi” globally. Apart from these countries, KVIC’s trademark applications are pending in 40 countries including the USA, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Japan, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil and others.
The KVIC obtained the latest trademark registration in Bhutan on July 9 , while trademark registration was granted in the UAE on June 28.. With this, KVIC has succeeded in securing trademark registration for the first time in a Gulf country. Earlier, KVIC got the trademark registration for “Khadi” in Mexico in December 2020.
So far KVIC was having Trademark registrations for the word mark “KHADI” in five countries--- Germany, UK, Australia, Russia, China. The European Union also granted KHADI trademark registrations in certain classes. However, with recent trademark registrations in Bhutan, UAE and Mexico, the number of such countries has gone up to nine. In these countries, KVIC has got registrations in various classes that pertain to Khadi fabric, Khadi readymade garments and village industry products like Khadi soaps, Khadi cosmetics, Khadi incense sticks among others.
KVIC Chairman Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena said these trademark registrations will prevent any misuse of the brand name “Khadi” globally. “In recent years, Khadi’s popularity has seen a massive growth in India and abroad due to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s appeal to adopt Khadi. It has, therefore, become very important for KVIC to protect the identity of Khadi and safeguard the interest of consumers and lakhs of Khadi artisans who are manufacturing genuine Khadi products. It is for the first time that KVIC has made aggressive efforts to safeguard Khadi from such misuse. These efforts have yielded significant results and helped Khadi’s sales grow significantly in the last few years,” Saxena said, adding efforts are being made to secure trademark registrations in other countries at the earliest.