The story so far: The longstanding dispute over the use of the abbreviation ‘KSRTC’ between Karnataka and Kerala has finally concluded. The Madras High Court recently ruled that there is no legal restriction preventing the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation from using the abbreviation ‘KSRTC’.
Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has secured legal ownership of its trademarks, including the abbreviation KSRTC. Both Karnataka and Kerala SRTCs have been using the abbreviation KSRTC for many decades now.
A controversy regarding the trademark designation ‘KSRTC’ surfaced in 2021 when the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation claimed that the Trademark Registry had granted exclusive rights to them for using the ‘KSRTC’ trademark. According to their claim, their counterpart in Karnataka had no entitlement to the trademark.