How a saint's simple blue-bordered saree became one of India's most unusual trademarks — a symbol protected in the same breath as her canonization.
The light and spirit of Blessed Saint Mother Teresa are still burning brightly. On September 4, 2016, she was canonized, and this coincided with the recognition of the blue border saree — the apparel worn by the nuns of Missionaries of Charity — as intellectual property. The saree, first blessed by Father Van Exem at the Sacristy of the Convent Chapel, carried a distinct pattern: two small blue stripes followed by a wider stripe, a border she wore unchanged as she went out to serve the poor and destitute on the streets of Kolkata.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity and is regarded as one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century. Born in 1910 in Skopje, she taught in India for 17 years before, in 1946, experiencing her "call within a call" to devote herself to the sick and the poor. Her order established a hospice and centres for the blind, aged, disabled and leprosy-affected. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, died in September 1997, and was declared a saint on September 4, 2016, after Pope Francis recognised a second miracle attributed to her in December 2015.
"The Missionaries of Charity does not believe in publicity, but since unscrupulous and unfair usage of the design across the globe is being witnessed, spreading awareness about the trademark would alleviate such unfair practices."
To protect their identity through intellectual property rights, trademark applications were filed on December 12, 2013 before the Trade Marks Registry, followed by the necessary due diligence and procedures. Registration was granted nearly three years later — symbolically, on September 4, 2016, the very day of Mother Teresa's canonization, despite it being a Sunday. Acting on instruction from Missionaries of Charity, Biswajit Sarkar, Advocates – IP Attorneys made great inroads for the protection of the blue-patterned saree under intellectual property rights.