The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has issued a legal notice to the proprietor, who allegedly manufactured shoes bearing the “CA” Logo, seeking compensation to the tune of Rupees One Crore and a formal written apology.
The legal notice from ICAI reads as follows: –
“The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (hereinafter referred to as “ICAI” or Institute) is a statutory body set up by an Act of Parliament namely “The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949‘ to regulate and develop the profession of Chartered Accountants and inter-alia to conduct Chartered Accountancy Examinations across the country for the students aspiring to become Chartered Accountants.
The Institute functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. The Head office of ICAI is at ICAI Bhawan, Indraprastha Marg, New Delhi-110002, and its official website.
It is brought to our notice that you the above-referred notice, are illegally and unauthorizedly using the ‘CA’ Logo in connection with the manufacturing and trading of the Shoes manufactured by your establishment. A copy of the Manufactured Article wherein illegally and unauthorizedly used ‘CA’ Logo is enclosed for your ready reference.
It is informed that the CA Logo containing the letters ‘CA‘ is the registered Trade Mark of this Institute (Registration no. 2147610) and any unauthorized use of the same or its constituent letters amounts to the infringement of Trade Marks of the Institute which is a punishable offense under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. It is stated that by unauthorizedly using the CA Logo, committed the offense specified under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 relating to the infringement of Trade Mark.
In view of the foregoing, the above-referred notice is hereby called upon the company to do so:
Immediately cease and desist from using the CA Logo in the manufacturing, distribution, publicity in any form, and sale of the products with the CA Logo and remove all such products with the imprint CA Logo from the Market.
Pay compensation amounting to Rs. 1 crore to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for the unauthorized and illegal usage of Registered Trade Mark of CA Logo on the products and tender an unconditional apology in a newspaper of national Importance within 15 days under intimation to us failing which ICAI shall be constrained to initiate civil and criminal proceedings including lodging of FIR/Criminal complaint against the company at the cost and consequences which may please be noted.”
“A legal notice/warning has been issued by ICAI claiming Rs. 1 crore as immediate compensation and seeking a nationwide apology in an important newspaper. It is not just a case of trademark violation but an insult to the reputation of CA as a profession”, FCA V S Vadivel wrote on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.
Notably, this is the tweet that brought the incident to light :
The compensation claim has been raised by ICAI on the ground of illegal and unauthorized use of the prestigious CA logo, more details are yet to follow.
