Volta trademark order favours Voltas

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board has ruled in favour of the Tata group's air-conditioner maker Voltas in a dispute over the Volta trademark, asking the registrar of trademarks to reconsider an application by Kolkata-based Akurom Enterprises for its use.

"The matter is remanded back to the Registrar of Trade Marks, Kolkata, for re-advertising the trademark and to decide the registrability of the trade mark in accordance with law at the earliest, as the application is of the year 1995," said the order. "In our considered view, the advertisement is not correct."

Voltas and Akurom Enterprises representatives were not available for comments.

Akurom had applied for registration of the Volta trade mark under class nine classification, which is for electrical and scientific apparatus, for its lead acid accumulator. It filed a request in May 2003 for amending the date of use to April 1990; the request was allowed on June 2003, advertised according to the rules. Voltas' earlier complaint against it was rejected by the deputy registrar against the grant of the trade mark.

After hearing both the companies, the deputy registrar had allowed Akurom to proceed with the registration. Voltas had then approached the appellate board against this order.

The board said while the deputy registrar's order failed to consider the fact that the advertisement by Akurom did not incorporate the amended date of use.

The purpose of the advertisement is to provide complete information of the trademark.