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heritage and much more to Indians, has been appropriated
by a German firm, which has obtained trademark rights
over it.
The firm, VEDA GmbH of Germany, involved in development
of computer software has obtained exclusive rights over
the name, albeit for its computer products and registered
it in many countries.
Coming barely months after another German firm patented
'vaastu', the art of aesthetic architecture of ancient
India, this development means one more loss for the
country of one of its ancient possessions.
The matter came to light following a dispute before the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) over a
web address www.veda.com, registered by a UK national,
Nicholas Silverstone.
The claim succeeded but not before the administrative
panel, which decided the case, reminded Veda GmbH that
"almost a billion of Hindus would dispute that the name
of their sacred scripture (Veda or the Vedas) has been
created by a German company".
The observation came on the firm's contention that Veda
was a self-created word.
Veda GmbH had approached the WIPO Arbitration and
Mediation Centre in November last, claiming to be owner
of the trademark VEDA, registered in several countries
for computer software and computer-related services.
The German firm accused Silverstone of acting in bad
faith ignoring its trademark rights and pleaded with the
WIPO that it transfered the domain name to it.
Pursuing the complaint, the WIPO Panel ruled respondent
(Silverstone) could have legitimately registered veda.com
for a website devoted to selling religious Hindu
literature.
"A bonafide use of veda.com through a connection to
Hinduism, or Hindu-related religious products or
services, would justify a finding in favour of the
respondent," it said.
However, Silverstone defaulted in answering questions
raised by the company forcing the panel to rule that he
"did not and does not claim a connection with Hinduism."
"The trademark Veda is known well enough in the computer
and Internet world and it is presumable that the
respondent knew of it when registering the domain name,"
it said, adding the validity of its trademark was beyond
dispute.
Observing that the domain name had indeed been registered
in bad faith, the WIPO ordered that veda.com be
transferred to Veda GmbH.
Read the complete news at:
http://www.timesofindia.com
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