Textile Committee, Ministry of Textiles has been engaged by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to inspect the Khadi production processes through the physical inspection to ensure hand spun and hand weaving process and draw the Khadi samples from laboratory testing.
KVIC had issued 2172 notices to entities engaged in the unauthorized sale of products in the name of Khadi, against which 447 entities have apologized for unknowingly using the Khadi Trade Mark, 84 entities have given undertaking to the effect that they will not use Khadi Trade Marks in future.
The following steps to prevent the sale of counterfeit Khadi products:
- KVIC has obtained Trade Mark Registration for the wordmark “KHADI”, under most of the classes including classes-24 & 25 (textiles and textile products).
- KVIC has appointed 7 Trade Mark Consultants, who are actively watching the Trade Mark infringements by third parties and issuing legal notices to the unauthorized users.
- KVIC is also removing the links regarding the online sale of fake Khadi products from e-commerce platforms and social media on a continuous basis. So far, KVIC removed 2487 links from Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc.
- KVIC is constantly opposing the applications for registration of Trade Marks filed by third parties with the word ‘KHADI’ as part of their Trade Mark. So far, KVIC filed 185 oppositions.
- KVIC is also filing rectification applications before the Trade Mark Authorities for cancellation of the Trade Marks of the third parties already registered, which contains the word “KHADI” as part of its Trade Mark. So far, KVIC already filed 43 rectification applications.
As per, MHA Order No. 02/01/2020-Public (Part-III) dated 03.12.2021 has amended Flag Code of India 2002 that at Part-I, Para l.2 “The National Flag of India shall be made of hand spun and hand woven or machine made, cotton/polyester/wool/silk Khadi bunting”. According to the MHA order, hand spun, hand woven Khadi bunting cloth is stil1 continued even though decentralized for manufacturing of the Flag out of polyester or machine-made fibers. Three Khadi Institutions are holding BIS license for manufacturing the IS-I National Flag and 7 more Khadi Institutions have been identified for obtaining the BIS license for manufacturing flag.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.