The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has ruled that it cannot be done and directed the removal of the word ‘Ayur,’ registered in the name of Three-N-Products (P) Ltd., New Delhi, from the Register of Trade Marks.

The Hon’ble Board held that the AYUR is a generic word. A common blessing is for Ayur and Arogyam, and so too is Ayushmanbhava. To hoard it as a mine-own-forever is not in public interest. Such a monopoly was never intended by the Trade Marks Act, 1999. This is a mark which is publicijuris and cannot be appropriated by any one.

Hindustan Unilever Limited’s legal counsels Anand and Anand played an instrumental role in the verdict.