Darjeeling’s ‘Toy Train’

Darjeeling’s ‘Toy Train’

Subject – Economy

Context – India moves to patent the over century-old logos of Darjeeling’s ‘Toy Train’

Concept –

• More than two decades after the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, India has finally registered the logos of the iconic ‘Toy Train’ internationally as its intellectual property.
• The use of these logos anywhere in the world will now require written permission from India and the payment of a fee.
• The DHR, which started operations in 1880, more than 140 years ago, has two logos, both of which have been patented.
  • One has “DHR” in bold black, intertwined letters;
  • the other is a circular seal with a picture of mountains, forests and a river, with “Darjeeling Himalayan Railway” in white lettering on a green background around it.

• Both logos are over a century old, and popular in world heritage circuits. They are used randomly on merchandise and communications materials by various commercial organisations in Europe, the UK and the US; even the West Bengal government has used it in communications and on merchandise in the past.
• The Railway Ministry in Delhi and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway office in Kurseong, West Bengal, initiated the process of registering the logo with the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry in August.
• The claim was then sent to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a specialised agency of the United Nations based in Geneva, Switzerland, in accordance with the procedure laid down in WIPO’s Vienna Classification (VCL).
  • There is a six-month window to register any counter-claims, following which the Indian government’s claim will receive international approval.
• Sources said there are plans to patent the logos of India are other mountain railways as well, such as the Mettupalayam-Udagamandalam Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the Kalka-Shimla Railway, and the Matheran Hill Railway.
• DHR and the Mountain Railways of India (DHR, Nilgiri, and Kalka-Shimla) have been selected by the United Nations Postal Administration among six global UNESCO sites to be made part of its World Heritage Stamp series.
  • The stamp features a steam locomotive at Ghum station, the highest point on the DHR route, commanding a panoramic view of the Darjeeling Himalayas.

To know about different types of Intellectual Property Rights, please refer July 2021 DPN.