The state government has asserted its trademark rights over the word “Sardar” in honour of India’s iron man, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and ordered an industrialist to modify the name of one of his products.
Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd (GSFC), a PSU of the Gujarat government, sued one Dashrath Patel of Indian Agro Chemicals, which has a unit in Dholka GIDC, last year for trademark infringement of the PSU’s trademark Sardar. Sardar Seven Star! was the name given by the industrial unit to its fertiliser.
As soon as GSFC knew about this, it filed a trademark suit in September 2020 with the Ahmedabad rural court in Mirzapur, claiming that it had trademark rights over the word ‘Sardar’ for various fertiliser and chemical goods because it has had a registered label since 1967.
GSFC demanded that Indian Agro should stop selling its goods under any name that includes the term Sardar and is misleadingly similar to the registered brand. It even claimed Rs 1 crore in damages for loss of reputation and goodwill, with interest at the rate of 12% annually.
Indian Agro quickly accepted GSFC’s claim and changed the name of its product from Sardar to Sarkar Seven Star. However, because it felt that using the word ‘Sarkar’ might land it in problems, it stopped using the word Sarkar as well.
Last month, the company informed the court that it had already stopped using the claimed trademark and had dropped the terms – Sardar and Sarkar – and that the court could not force it to pay GSFC any damages. It also assured the court that it would not utilise the contested trademarks on any of its products.
In an order issued last week, special judge SSP Jain of the commercial court approved Indian Agro’s undertaking and the settlement negotiated between the two firms, bringing the case to a close.
This was GSFC’s second run-in with private industry for its claim to the Sardar brand. It had taken one Sardar Biochem Fertilizer to municipal court on this issue a few years back.
However, the company’s owner, Ashok Patel, was adamant about who owned the brand Sardar and claimed that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel belonged to the Patidar community.
As a member of the community, he has the right to use the term ‘Sardar.’ Patel died during the epidemic last year, and GSFC dropped its case, according to Patel’s advocate, Samrat Mehta.