The trademark "CHUTIYARAM" recently became a topic of debate within the intellectual property industry due to its controversial nature and the discussions surrounding its registration and usage. The Delhi Trademark Office recently accepted the application for registration of the mark 'CHUTIYARAM' under Class 30 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (hereinafter Act). The acceptance of the application has created rumpus amongst the large, as people around the country remarked the acceptance of this mark "CHUTIYARAM" as fundamentally obscene which is against the public decency.The present case attains great importance as it dealt with the rationality of public morality.
The origin of the dispute can be traced down from the application filed for the mark "CHUTIYARAM" on 03.11.2022 concerning the goods "NAMKEEN AND BISCUITS". The TM Registry had scheduled multiple show-cause hearings. However, the Applicant failed to appear and thereof, the Registry passed the "acceptance and advertised" order of the mark in March 2025, stating the applied mark is an arbitrary mark which is a combination of two words ", CHUTI" and "RAM" which has no direct relation to the goods used, thus waiving off the objections raised under Section 9(1) of the Act.
Soon after the acceptance order, there was a media outrage questioning the bypass of scrutiny under Section 9(2)(c) of the Act, which limits the registration of trademarks that appear to be scandalous, obscene, or contrary to public morality.
Two weeks after the acceptance order, the Registry revoked its decision by exercising its power under Section 19 of the Act and Rule 38 of the Trademarks Rules 2017, citing an error on its part. Subsequently, it withdrew the application based on the grounds under Section 9 and Section 11 of the Act.
This controversy sparked the debate over the filing of a trademark, as the mark "CHUTIYARAM" is averred from the "CHUTIYA", which is ambiguously referred to as "Sacred hair Lock" and also "calling a foolish". Several people pointed out that the pronunciation of the mark will appear to be demeaning and unsuitable for use as a brand identity. In the negative, the Applicant contended that the Registry fails to protect the vernacular languages, asserting that the Registry through its portal lacks the module for filing of Hindi word marks, and thereof forcing the Applicants to either transliterate their marks in English only or apply for device mark in Devanagari script.
The future pathway for registering the "CHUTIYARAM" mark appears murky from the above. The application for the registration should always evaluated with a rule of reason standard instead of the public opinion, but the recent controversy opens the room for discussion of adopting brand identity with reasonable care in the emerging consumer market.
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