The Hindu Business Line : Govt to contest ‘Ponni’ trademark to Malaysian firm

Issues of concern
Exporters fear company may misuse India ban on non-basmati shipments.
While Basmati has defined product characteristics, Ponni doesn’t.

Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Aug. 6 The Union Government has decided to formally contest the grant of registration for ‘Ponni’ rice as a trademark to a Malaysian company, Syarikat Faiza Sdn. Bhd. “We have authorised a legal firm to appeal against the registration. They will be doing so shortly,” Mr Asit Tripathy, Chairman of the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), told .

APEDA has engaged K&S Partners, a Delhi-based intellectual property attorney, to file a cancellation application with the Malaysian Trade Marks Registry for removal of ‘Ponni’ from the register.

Syarikat Faiza has since the late 1990s been importing Ponni rice from India and distributing it in Malaysia under the ‘Taj Mahal’ brand.

Around mid-2000, the company went a step ahead and sought registration of ‘Ponni’ itself as a Class 30 trademark pertaining to rice under the Malaysian Trade Marks Act.

On January 10, 2006, Syarikat Faiza was issued a certificate, making it the registered proprietor of the ‘Ponni’ trademark in Malaysia.

Legal notice

Matters started really hotting up from December 17, when Syarikat Faiza issued a legal notice to Dagang Mewah Sdn. Bhd, a Kuala Lumpur-based firm. The latter was a distributor for Wisebridge, yet another importer of Ponni rice, which it was marketing under the ‘Agra’ brand.

Thereafter, Syarikat Faiza moved an application in the High Court of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur seeking an injunction restraining Dagang Mewah from using the term ‘Ponni’, as it was a trademark belonging exclusively to the former.

The court in its preliminary hearing passed an ex-parte order of injunction in favour of Syarikat Faiza, which was confirmed in a subsequent hearing on May 12.

Dagang Mewah, on June 9, filed an appeal against the ex-parte order.

APEDA, on its part, is also planning to initiate an intervention action as an interested party in the case. Speaking from Kuala Lumpur, Mr Rajasekaran Thiyarajan of T. Raja & Co, which is representing Dagang Mewah, said that “We will coordinate with the Indian side to seek cancellation of the trademark registration granted on Ponni”.

What is ironical in the present situation is that the Centre has banned export of all non-basmati rice from the country, which includes Ponni as well.

On the other hand, there is nothing that now prevents Syarikat Faiza from importing rice from, say Thailand, and selling it as ‘Ponni’ within Malaysia.

Exporters’ fear

Moreover, exporters here fear that the company could obtain registration for ‘Ponni’ from other countries too and turn the current ban on all non-basmati shipments from India as an opportunity to aggressively market its product, thereby further strengthening its claim on the trademark.

Prior to the ban, imposed from April 1, the country was annually shipping out around 1.5 lakh tonnes of Ponni rice, of which 15,000-odd tonnes was going to Malaysia.

Analysts say that Ponni might prove to be a more difficult case than Basmati, given that the latter has defined product characteristics (distinct aroma, non-stickiness, elongation upon cooking, etc) identifiable with the specific geography of the Himalayan foothills.

In the case of Ponni, there is no such traditionally defined product identification. The well-known ‘White Ponni’ is actually a pure line selection from a cross between Taichung 65 and Myang Ebos 6080/2, released by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in 1986.

TNAU also released ADT-43 in 1998 and CO(R) 48 in 2007, which are referred to in trade circles as ‘Adisaya Ponni’ and ‘Podigai Ponnia’, respectively.

Cauvery support

What is indisputable though is the association of the term ‘Ponni’ with the Cauvery, which makes Ponni rice a favourable case for geographical indication similar to Malabar Pepper or Darjeeling Tea.