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Vinod Mathew

AHMEDABAD, April 8

THE Rs 2,747-crore Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the owner of the Amul brand, has sought to rewrite the script for the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) by making clear that it has the first lien on the Mother Dairy trademark. This move would question the raison d'etre of NDDB's thrust into the realm of marketing, as it is under the Mother Dairy brand that it had routed various businesses with volumes close to Rs 1,000 crore.

Just as both GCMMF and the NDDB-promoted Mother Dairy Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd (MDFVP) have registered for the Mother Dairy trademark, it transpires that there is a vital gap of 13 days between the claims of the two aspirants. As things stand today, GCMMF seems to have its nose in front in this high stakes race for the vital brand name.

According to information made available to Business Line, GCMMF had applied for the ownership of the Mother Dairy brand on August 1, 2000 with the Registrar of Trade Marks, Government of India. Against this, the NDDB application made for the same was put up only on August 14, 2000. And the 13-day lapse of time may prove to be a debilitating one in this war of nerves between two of the premier names in dairy business in the country.

Since then, the NDDB had launched a number of subsidiaries under the Mother Dairy label, including the Mother Dairy Foods and Vegetables Company Ltd (MDFVC) and the Mother Dairy Foods Ltd (MDFL). While the former was a repositioning of the MDFVP, the MDFL was set up principally with the intention of forging joint venture alliances with State cooperative milk marketing federations.

Even as the battle for the disputed brand name is fought at one level, the powers that be at GCMMF seem to believe that this is as good an opportunity as any to win back the Mother Dairy, Delhi from NDDB and give it back to its constituent co-operative federations. The argument is that if Mother Dairy at Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad could belong to the State federations, the rules need not be different in the case of Delhi alone.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that NDDB had been trying to persuade GCMMF to step down on the Mother Dairy claim. And it would have worked but for the high-voltage spat between the heads of the two organisations - Dr Amrita Patel and Dr Verghese Kurien - over the past one year or so.

GCMMF feels it has a strong case and sees no reason why it should give up on the trademark claim. This includes advertisement campaigns going back to 1995 using the Mother Dairy brand name for its Ahmedabad dairy plant and official communiqués with the Gujarat Government and even NDDB.

The point of no return is understood to have come in May 2002, when the NDDB got in touch with P.S. Pai & Co, the patented trademark agents, asking it provide details of GCMMF's application for the Mother Dairy trade mark. The trademark agents were asked by GCMMF not to do any such thing as it was felt that NDDB went behind its back by not requisitioning these details directly.

Till date, there are only these two claimants to the Mother Dairy trademark - GCMMF and NDDB. Both the parties have applied under Classes 5, 29, 30 and 31 of the trade mark registration procedures, covering areas such as milk, milk products, edible oils, fruits and vegetables (preserved, dried and cooked), coffee, tea, cocoa, cereal products, bread, biscuits, cake, confectionaries, fresh fruits and vegetables, food stuff for animals and malts.

Clearly, the GCMMF decision not to budge on the trademark claim is a major jolt to NDDB as almost all its development plans fall under the Mother Dairy umbrella. It was only recently that the NDDB had hired the services of brand identity and design consultants, Ray+Keshavan, reportedly for an image makeover exercise as part of its efforts to build the Mother Dairy brand at the national level.

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