[Commons-Law] Clay Cups-Trade Mark-Dalits

[srinivas at southcentre.org]

Dear Jayna
I know that.But my question is why should there be a trade mark on Clay 
Cup in the
first place. I can understand if Star Bucks develops a design for cup and 
gets IP
rights over it. But what happens if Star Bucks applies for and gets a 
trade mark
Coffee Cup or Plastic Cup. In this case they are using the name of the 
dalits for
this purpose. And as pointed out their claim about clay cups is not true.
cheers
ravi
K.Ravi Srinivas
Post Doctoral Fellow
IPR Policy Research &
Development Program
South Centre 
17-19 Chemin Du Champ d'Anier
1209 Petit Saconnex
Geneva
Switzerland

Postal Address

K.Ravi Srinivas
South Centre
CP 228 
1211 Geneva 19
Switzerland

Tel: +41 22 791 81 67 
Fax: +41 22 798 85 31

email: srinivas at southcentre.org



"Jayna Kothari" <jaynakothari at justice.com> 
14.06.2005 15:26

To
srinivas at southcentre.org
cc
commons-law at sarai.net
Subject
Re: [Commons-Law] Clay Cups-Trade Mark-Dalits







Dear Ravi,

I checked out the website about the clay cups used by
dalit Network.org as I was quite curious. The website
shows that it is only the phrase 'Clay Cup' for which a
trademark application is made, since the 'TM' symbol is
shown. In any case, only a word, symbol, sign, shape
etc can be protected through a trademark and not the
cup made of clay itself. 
 
cheers,
Jayna


On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:25:31 +0200,
srinivas at southcentre.org wrote:


An organisation based in USA claims
that clay cups is its trademark.They sell clay cups
which they claim are
made
by dalit community outside hyderabad.
For me this is problematic on many grounds. First of
all clay cup is a
mundane
thing and to claim trade mark over that
is atrocious. It is done in the name of helping dalits
but the trade mark
owners are
dalits or potters. And in the cup one
finds the name DalitNetwork.org If the clay cup is a
symbol of oppression
why even that
should be commercilaised by obtaining
trade mark. And not all those who use clay cups are
dalits. And not all
dalits use
clay cups. But when they commercialise
this they fail to mention that using clay cups
exclusively for dalits  is
a  custom found in 
some places.Instead it is claimed "clay
cups are commonly used by establishments in india and
are provided exclusively
for
dalits" . This is misleading. Dalit
organisations and activists should take up this matter
and protest against
the trade mark as
well as the move to commercialise social
oppression.
http://www.dalitnetwork.org/Documents/Art2ClayCup.html
K.Ravi Srinivas

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