BENGALURU: Over a 117 years ago, in 1898, H S Thirumalachar opened a small bakery store at VV Puram after learning the art of making bread from an Englishman. The iconic Iyengars’ bakery is currently being run by its fourth generation entrepreneur, HT Srinivas, who opened another store in Austin Town in 1981 to serve delicious bakes to a larger number of Bengalureans.
Decades after, his honey cakes and potato bakes are a sensation in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
However, with branches spread across south India and a few stores in Maharashtra, the new generation businessmen and Sridhara’s sons – 30-year-old Lakshmeesha and 26-year-old Raman – now have a problem at hand with imposters. Numerous bakeries in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai are using Iyengar brand name to serve their bakes.
“I first spotted a bakery carrying our name near Austin Town about four years ago. Those who wanted cheap bakes and didn't bother with quality would go there, but our loyal customers stuck through. The fake stores may have copied our name but they cannot match us in quality,” says Raman HS.
Even before the 26-year-old learnt that Mumbai hosts close to 400 fake Iyengar Bakeries, Raman had filed a case against the fake store in Bengaluru, but did not have a legal stand in court as the bakery's trademark has not been registered.
Raman learnt about the fake stores in Mumbai after a man came up with a rather weird business proposition, where he said that he would like to lease out an Iyengar Bakery store in Mumbai to Raman. This caught him unawares since he had never known of the existence such a store in his chain. Many have been exploiting the brand that their older generations took decades to build, but the sons are helpless to defend it.
Srinivas had registered the bakery's trademark in the 90s with a logo that had a picture of Lord Venkateshwara. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that names of gods or holy books cannot be trademarked to sell goods and services. Following this his son Raman applied for another trademark with a logo adhering to the new policy three months ago.
However, without a registered trademark the sons do not have a legal stand in terms of ownership, even if they file a case against the duplicates.
“You'll find these fakes using our brand name in almost every nook and corner of South India, especially in Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. I am planning to travel to Hyderabad to find out if there are such stores there,” says the MBA graduate.
With an alarming number of fakes cropping up in major Indian cities, the sons are determined to do whatever it takes to save their brand from being tarnished by those who sell low quality bakes manipulating the brand to attract customers.
“I am applying for a patent to safeguard the brand name – Iyengar Bakery – to avoid this rampant misuse. I plan to start a franchise model of business for our bakery in the next three months. An original Iyengar Bakery will only be run by the Iyengars. This is a community-based business, where all of our stores are run by our close or distant relatives,” informs Raman.