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SAIL arm files FIR against Kashmir Steel for misuse of its trademark

Steel maker SAIL's marketing arm CMO has filed an FIR against its authorized dealer Kashmir Steel Corporation alleging misuse of registered trademarks.

‘Operating as a dealer of SAIL since 2005, Kashmir Steel Corporation has clandestinely manufactured and supplied substantial quantity of spurious steel rebars illegally bearing the SAIL TMT mark for use in various projects in Jammu and Srinagar,’ state-owned SAIL said in a statement.

It is mentioned in the FIR that the actual quantity of SAIL TMT rebars made available for retail sales to Kashmir Steel Corporation in the last one year was only 265 tonnes, SAIL said.

‘However, the dealer supplied much higher quantity running into several thousand tonnes of spurious steel for use in infrastructure projects in Jammu & Kashmir by branding it as SAIL steel,’ SAIL said in the FIR. SAIL also alleged that Kashmir Steel forged the dealership certificate by extending the validity to January 2016, though it was valid till January 2014 only.

SAIL plans to take further action against the dealer, including demanding huge compensation for causing damage to the company’s reputation by misuse of its registered trademark. Queries sent to Kashmir Steel Corporation regarding the allegations remained unanswered. The CMO had earlier filed a complaint against some infrastructure firms for allegedly stocking spurious TMT rebars bearing the SAIL trademark at its project sites in Jammu & Kashmir.Last week, CMO  had also filed legal charges against one of its own conversion agents, SKS Ispat of Raipur, for misusing the SAIL logo and trademark.

In addition, CMO lodged FIRs against Raipur-based re-rollers Pankaj Ispat and Alankar Alloys, who were allegedly found to be infringing trademark laws by illegally manufacturing TMT bars bearing SAIL trademarks in their factories. The steel giant said it is determined to take stringent action against any re-rollers, dealers or others indulging in manufacturing and sales of spurious steel by stamping SAIL brand names/trademarks on them.
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