R S Praveen Raj

R.S. Praveen Raj

R S Praveen Raj is an Indian social activist^[1][2][3][4] and ex-patent examiner.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Born on 31 March 1979,^[10] he started his career as an electrical and electronics engineer. Since November 2004, he has been working as scientist and research and development manager in CSIR's National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) in Thiruvananthapuram and is responsible for intellectual property (IP) management, technology transfer^[11] and human resource management at the Institute. Prior to joining Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), he worked as patent examiner in Indian Patent Office^[12] after a short stint in engineering job at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram.

R.S. Praveen Raj

Praveen Raj campaigns against alleged misuse of intellectual property laws in religious affairs.^[13][14][15] In 2009, he filed a case in Kerala High Court against Attukal Temple in Thiruvananthapuram for trademarking deity picture^[16] and another case in Supreme Court of India against Tirupati Temple for securing geographical indication tag^[17] to Tirupati Laddu, temple offering. Raj is also active in policy research^[18] and academic activities.^[19] He played a key role in devising IPR Policy^[20] of Kerala Government, which addresses the concerns^[21] on traditional knowledge protection. He was also associated in the process of making IPR compulsory in the curriculum of University/School Education in Kerala^[22] and setting up of educational institutions.^[23] He is also a proponent of right to information (RTI) in India.^[24]

Tirupati Laddu Prasadam and GI controversy

Tirupati Laddu is a prasadam given at Tirumala Temple in Tirupati, which is the richest temple in India. In 2009, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the trust which manages the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple obtained geographical indication (GI) tag to Tirupati laddu from Indian Patent Office. Geographical Indications (GI) is an intellectual property right (IPR), which identifies “goods” as originating from a certain region where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the product is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. The GI status gives the product a built-in legal protection and makes any infringement of the rights an offence. The legislative intent of GI statute is protecting the interest of the genuine producers from the specified geographical region.

TTD’s GI application said that the laddu derived its sanctity, reputation and uniqueness from it being offered as naivedyam (offering) to the Lord. R.S. Praveen Raj, moved Supreme Court of India against the grant of GI to ‘Tirupati laddu’^[25] lamenting that it is quite hard for devotees to believe that temple offerings are equivalent to manufactured goods or commercially significant commodities. He said that the GI tag on Tirupati laddu also passes a wrong message to the public that temple prasadams are akin to ‘industrial goods'. According to him, allowing GI registration of goods produced by private entities like TTD would defeat the spirit of GI protection, which is meant for protecting, preserving and promoting collective community rights as opposed to private monopoly rights. However he withdrew the petition from supreme court as a similar public interest petition was filed before the Madras High Court by another person.^[26]

However Madras High Court dismissed the petition^[27] on the ground that there already existed an alternate and efficacious remedy, in the form of rectification plea before the registrar of GIs or the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). R.S. Praveen Raj, then petitioned IPAB requesting it to initiate an action on its own will (suo motu) for the cancellation of GI status to the Tiruppathi laddu. IPAB wrote back to him stating that it had no such power to act on its own volition. In October 2010, he registered an application with the GI Registry seeking removal of the entry pertaining to ‘Tirupati Laddu' from the register. But the Geographical Indications (GI) Registry, Chennai rejected ex-parte and with costs the application for removal of GI tag. R. S. Praveen Raj, has failed to prove locus standi and interest with the registered good, the order said.^[28]

Case against grant of Trademark to picture of deity in Attukal Temple

In March 2009,Attukal Bhagawathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram city, obtained trademark protection^[29] for the picture of the presiding deity (Kannagi) and its claim to the title ‘Sabarimala of Women'. Office bearers of the temple trust claimed that the certificate issued by trademark registry under the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (Indian Patent Office) would help them to prevent unauthorised use of the picture and the title. However a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court initiated a suo motu case against the decision of the Controller General to grant certificate of trademark on the picture of the deity and the sobriquet 'Sabarimala of women’ based on a petition faxed by R.S. Praveen Raj. According to him,the action of the temple authorities sent a wrong message that a place of worship was a “business outfit” since trademark certification was intended for trade and commerce.^[30] He said in his petition that the use of religious symbols could not be equated to trade. "The trademark certification was intended for commercial advantage. Trademark indicated the source of manufacture or trade origin of the goods or services and thus protected the ‘goodwill’ of the undertaking. It was not fair for the temple trust to call itself a business undertaking and proprietor of a trade."

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