GUWAHATI, Nov 4 - It is big news for the thousand-year-old traditional silk industry of the State. The Sualkuchi handloom woven silk products have been granted a trade mark by the Controller General of Patents and Trade Marks of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The Controller General of Patents Design and Trade Marks has issued this trade mark in the name of the Sualkuchi Tat Silpa Unnayan Samity. The trade mark will be valid up to September 6, 2023.
Sualkuchi Tat Silpa Unnayan Samity secretary Hiralal Kalita said the trade mark will be applicable for �the textiles and textile goods, not included in other classes, bed covers, table covers and curtains,� referring to the Controller General of Patents and Trade Marks declaration.
The Sualkuchi Tat Silpa Unnayan Samity applied for the trade mark on September 6, 2013 and the application was registered against the number 2592761 as a class 24 one.
The word �SUALKUCHI�S� will be written on those silk products, which would now on be produced by the Sualkuchi weavers and artisans, as per the provision of the trade mark.
It may be mentioned that there was a popular uprising in Sualkuchi, which is described to be the Manchester of Assam, on March 30, 31 and April 1 and 2, 2013 against the spurious silk items produced in Varanasi and sold as Sualkuchi products by some unscrupulous traders.
The weavers destroyed heaps of such silk products. The situation reached such a state that the police had to resort to firing to quell the situation and this resulted in the injuries to two protestors. Finally, the district administration had to clamp curfew in the silk town for several days.
