KVIC seeks international Khadi trademark

State-owned Khadi Village Industries Corporation is looking for an international trademark for ‘khadi’ under the Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property to prevent any product from masquerading as ‘khadi’ nationally or globally. KVIC is currently embroiled in cases in several countries like Germany for violation of the Khadi Mark regulations. The regulations were issued by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in 2013, which empower KVIC to grant ‘Khadi Mark’ registration and take royalties
from any producer using the Khadi mark. In 2015, KVIC had imposed a penalty of Rs 600-crore on garment retailing chain FabIndia for
marketing mill-made fabric as khadi. “Ever since the pre-independent era, Khadi has been considered as the national symbol
for Swadeshi. The word marks “Khadi”, “Kutir”, “Sarvodaya”, and the logo of Khadi India and Charkha are the harbinger of this spirit and hence, must be protected,” said KVIC Chairman VK Saxena.