National

Trademark awarded to CFA course cancelled

NEW DELHI: The Trademarks Registry, Delhi, has passed an order cancelling the trademark awarded to the CFA course conducted by the U.S.-based Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (formerly known as Association of Investment Management and Research).

G.L. Verma, Deputy Registrar of Trademarks, in a recent order said the trademark issued to CFAI on July 13, 2005, was in contravention of the provisions of law and hence it was cancelled. “The trademark shall be re-advertised in the Trademarks journal giving proper opportunity to the general public to file the notice of opposition if any,” he added.

The order was passed on an application from the Hyderabad-based Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) questioning the erroneous advertisement of the ‘CFA’ trademark issued in the name of ICFAI, Hyderabad office, and seeking cancellation of the CFA trademark.

A trademark enables a student to officially use the CFA designation and with the cancellation of the trademark, CFAI students cannot use the CFA designation. CFAI and ICFAI initially operated jointly in offering the course in India. Following a dispute in 1998, both institutes applied for trademark registration.

Opposing the application, it was argued on behalf of CFAI that ICFAI was aware of the fact that the ‘CFA’ trademark number did not belong to it, but to the CFA institute and if any opposition/objection was to be raised, it should have raised it at the time of publication. The erroneously mentioned details in the publication was duly corrected and the corrections did not warrant cancellation of the registration for any purpose under the Act. The Deputy Registrar, however, rejected the contentions.

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