SAIL encashes bank guarantee of agent alleging brand misuse

Sending out a strong message to companies that misuse its trademarks, SAIL has encashed the multi-crore rupee bank guarantee of SKS Ispat alleging that it misused the brand, the state-owned company said today.
The Central Marketing Organisation (CMO), the marketing wing of SAIL, has set the ball rolling to protect various brand names/trademarks of the company and counter their misuse by unscrupulous re-rollers in different parts of the country, India's largest steel maker said in a statement.
ISO 9001:2008-certified CMO is India's largest steel marketing set-up with a presence across the country.
"In a move that is aimed as a warning to all the re-rollers who are engaged in sale or manufacture of spurious steel products bearing the Steel Authority of India logo/brand names, CMO has encashed the multi-crore bank guarantee of its own conversion agent SKS Ispat of Raipur, Chhattisgarh which was found to be indulging in illegal activity of misusing the SAIL brand," the company said .

In addition to the company logo, SAIL has 18 registered product trademarks.
CMO has initiated legal proceedings against SKS Ispat and claimed several hundred crores of rupee as damages for misusing SAIL brand names and trademark, the statement said, adding that "SKS Ispat has also been informed that its security deposit lying at CMO's Branch Sales Office, Bhilai will be forfeited".

SKS Ispat did not respond to the queries.
The CMO has also lodged FIRs against Raipur-based re-rollers Pankaj Ispat and Alankar Alloys alleging that they were also "found to be infringing trademark laws by illegally manufacturing TMT bars bearing SAIL trademarks in their factories at Raipur".

In another case, the CMO has lodged an FIR against Hyderabad-based Ramky Infrastructures alleging use of "spurious TMT bars with SAIL trademarks" in the Rs 1,625-crore Srinagar-Jammu highway expansion project in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, it added.
The statement said the CMO over the last 18 months has been receiving information of clandestine and illegal manufacturing/rolling and selling of spurious steel products bearing SAIL marks in various parts of the country.
"Sales of these products, mainly construction steels such as TMT rebars and structural items such as beams, joists, angles, channels, etc, not only violate the provisions of the Trademark Act, 1999 but also pose a risk for the general public because at times they do not conform to the quality standards of SAIL," it said.

Sales of such spurious material affect both the company's revenues as well as reputation, it added.