Press are currently reporting, as a fun and quirky article, the registration of Saint Mother Teresa’s blue and white sari uniform as a trade mark in India.
Judging by the comments sections on many UK press sites, there is a mixture of confusion and surprise at the move. But from a legal perspective, it makes perfect sense.
Why does it make sense to protect it as a trade mark?
Let’s look at who the owner of the right is first of all. It’s Missionaries of Charity – the order which Mother Teresa belonged to and who have adopted her appearance as their uniform across the world. It therefore seems unlikely that the owners are looking to exploit their registered rights for massive commercial gain. This flies in the face of what many consider to be the primary reason for trade mark registration.
The key point to registering a trade mark is to provide certainty and control over what is an intrinsically intangible item. A trade mark is a badge of origin, an identifier and for many the core of a brand – whether it be the Nike swoosh on the side of a pair of trainers or the Intel jingle when processors are mentioned.
A business will seek trade mark registration in order to put that asset to work. Once registered, a trade mark can last forever (truly, so long as it is renewed every 10 years it may never expire) and is destined to become the most valuable asset – in the modern consumer electronics market, individuals buy Apple products regardless of where they are manufactured – they buy them because they are Apple’s products. So you can licence your mark to third parties for a royalty, or keep them all to yourself and watch their value grow with your business.
Yet they are both a shield and a sword. Apple is no stranger to this, having fought many battles in various courts of the use of the “i” prefix. This is where Mother Teresa’s uniform as a registered trade mark makes sense.
Of course, if the Missionaries of Charity wanted to produce images of the uniform, or the uniform itself, for sale in order to raise funds then it can do so, and it could licence the right out to third parties. But you’re unlikely to see shops filling with licenced Mother Teresa merchandise any time soon (as apposed to the significant licences Marvel, DC and Disney et al grant).
The registration is more likely to be used to prevent others from doing exactly that – cashing in on part of the iconic image of the most modern saint.
To apply to register your trade mark online, please click here.