Operation Sindoor – with its symbolic resonance of love and bravery – has stirred emotions and hearts in India. Which is why when companies, including Reliance Industries, tried to cash in on the evocative code name of India’s retaliatory strike by trying to trademark it, it met with huge social media backlash. So much so that a red-faced Reliance quickly withdrew its trademark request.
The company said the application was “filed inadvertently”, admitting that it was a mistake. Apart from Reliance, there are five other trademark requests still pending on the site.
The Reliance statement said: “Jio Studios has withdrawn its trademark application, which was filed inadvertently by a junior person without authorisation.”
Reliance clarified that all its stakeholders are incredibly proud of Operation Sindoor, which came about in response to a Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
Six applications
On May 7 – the very day India carried out aerial strike on Pakistan and PoK terror sites - four different applications were made to trademark the phrase ‘Operation Sindoor’ under Class 41 of the Nice Classification.
This category includes services like films, shows, online content, education, cultural events and more. It is commonly used by OTT platforms, broadcasters and film-makers.
Two other applications , under Class 41, were made on May 8 (Thursday). The official website of the Intellectual Property India shows that apart from Reliance, the three other applicants who filed applications on Wednesday were Mukesh Chetram Agrawal, Group Captain Kamal Singh Oberh (retired) and Alok Kothari.
The two applications made on Thursday were from Jayaraj T (who has sought trademark for Operation Sindoor – Sindoora Yuddham) and from Uttam.
Status of applications
Two of the applications – by Jayaraj and Agrawal – have ‘Send to Vienna Codification’ as their status. In trademark parlance this indicates that the application has been sent to the Vienna Codification branch of the Trademark Registry for classification of figurative elements, such as logos or designs. The other applications have, “Formalities Chk Pass” as their status, which means the Trademark Registry has accepted the initial documents and they meet the basic requirements of the application.
In India, military operation names are not automatically protected as intellectual property. However, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 empowers the registry to reject trademarks for being misleading, offensive or contrary to public policy.