Puri: Setting another milestone, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has achieved a major success in protecting the sacred traditions and heritage of the 12th century shrine in Odisha’s Puri.
According to Chief Administrator of SJTA Arabinda Padhee, three more trademark applications have been approved for the registration process. With this, the temple administration has secured intellectual property protection for three more distinctive names and identities associated with the shrine.
He said the temple administration has secured intellectual property protection for Shree Mandira under Classes 19 and 45, Ratna Bhandar under Classes 14 and 45, and Shree Nahar under Class 19.
The applications for all three distinctive names and identities have been accepted for publication by the Trade Marks Registry.
Earlier, in the first phase, approval was granted for three marks — Ananda Bajara, Patitapabana and the Nilachakra logo. In the second phase, five more applications, including Jagannath Dham, Shree Kshetra, Mahaprasada, Nilachakra and Koili Vaikuntha, were accepted for publication.
“We wish to protect the unique spiritual, cultural and institutional heritage associated with Shree Jagannatha Temple and prevent unauthorised or inappropriate commercial use of names and identities closely connected to the Shree Mandira,” Padhee said.
The SJTA would continue pursuing the remaining trademark applications and take all necessary steps to secure appropriate intellectual property protection for the sacred and distinctive heritage associated with the Shree Jagannath Temple, he said
The temple administration has filed a total of 29 applications with the Trade Marks Registry.
SJTA officials said the move was prompted by concerns that certain individuals and organisations were using sacred names and symbols associated with Lord Jagannath for commercial purposes.
To curb such misuse, the temple’s managing body decided to seek trademark protection for terms and symbols closely linked to the Jagannath tradition and authorised the Chief Administrator to initiate the registration process.
The administration had applied for trademark registration of 29 names, terms and symbols connected with the Jagannath tradition.
Following the latest achievement, approval for 18 more terms associated with the 12th-century shrine is expected soon. The Intellectual Property India has sought detailed information on these terminologies. We are optimistic about securing patent for those terms too, said officials.
Securing trademarks for key terms relating to Srimandir are seen as a major win for Odisha after the removal of the word “Dham” from Digha Jagannath Temple signage. The West Bengal government had last month initiated the process.
In May last year, the Odisha government decided to secure trademark rights to prevent misuse of certain words and logos associated with the Puri temple for commercial purposes by certain individuals and institutions amid a feud with Bengal over naming of the newly-built temple in Digha as ‘Jagannath dham’. The SJTA chief administrator was authorised to take the necessary steps. The terms sought to be shielded included ‘Jagannath dham’, ‘Srimandir’, ‘Purushottam Kshetra’, ‘Neelachal Dham’, ‘Bada Danda’, ‘Mahaprasad’ and ‘Neela chakra’, among others.
