Grammys try to gobble sattu in Bihar

Bihar’s popular health food sattu has taken the Grammys by storm.

A Patna-based company marketing it as a beverage under the brand name Grammy Instant Sattu Drink could be in a soup.

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Company, California, has opposed the registration of a trademark by VNPL Food Products, Patna, by the Registrar of Trade Marks, Kolkata.

The US firm said in its opposition notice that it had adopted the mark Grammy in 1958 and had been using it since 1959 for its annual awards ceremony for outstanding musical performances in the music industry.

Proprietor of VNPL Food Products Dinesh Chandra Singh, however, told HT:

“We have taken the word ‘Grammy’ from ‘gram’, which is the main ingredient of our health drink, and ‘yummy’ because it tastes good. The last date for filing our reply is April 17 and my lawyers are working on it.”

But the US firm isn’t swallowing this line. “Clearly, the impugned mark has been adopted to encash and trade upon the vast goodwill and tremendous reputation vested in the… trademark ‘Grammy’,” it said.

Intellectual property rights expert Sai Krishna said the law doesn’t permit the use of a well-known trademark that can dilute the brand.

“If an Indian court could restrain the use of Benz for undergarments, the same holds true in this case. The new law, introduced in 1999, protects the use of a well-known mark in India even with respect to goods that are not registered here,” Krishna said.

(With inputs from HTC, Delhi)