Last December, Sumathi Chandrashekharan had reported that the Ministry of Tourism was involved in a legal tussle with Durga Das Publications over Brand India’s flagship logo “Incredible India” for its magazine. In 2002, the Ministry launched the Incredible India campaign and acquired a copyright over the tag line “Incredible !ndia” with an exclamation mark replacing the I in India. In 2003, Durga Das publications bagged a three-year contract for publishing the magazine under this name, which expired in 2007. Consequently, fresh bids were called for, however the publishing house did not apply and so the contract was awarded to another publisher. The Ministry was in for a rude shock when Durga Das publications came up with its magazine with the same name; a show cause notice was served to the publishing house by Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP Licensing) asking why their licence should not be cancelled to which the publishing house claimed they had registered the magazine’s name as early as 2002. Following this, the Ministry filed a complaint with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) and sought permission to call its magazine “Incredible India- Travel Update”. It was also suggested that the publishing house had made a false representation before the RNI and was involved in criminal conspiracy which resulted in losses to the Ministry. On February 17th, Indian Express reported that the Delhi High Court rejected the application of the publishers to stay the notice and gave them a breather for a week to file their reply in the case. Now Indian Express reports that the ACP has rejected the claim of the publishing house on the grounds that it had concealed vital information while getting the title registered. Accordingly, the Tourism Ministry may get the title registered under its name and restart the publication of the magazine which was put on hold for a year.
but can “Incredible India” be the subject matter of copyright protection ?