SSI exemption and brand name use: collaboration labels alone do not prove another person's trade name or brand identity.

A product label stating that goods were manufactured under licence or in technical collaboration with a foreign concern does not, by itself, amount to use of that concern's brand name or trade name for SSI exemption purposes. The label must create a market identity linking the goods to another person in the manner contemplated by the exemption notifications, and the Revenue must establish that the mark used is in fact the other person's brand. On the stated facts, the collaborator's name formed part of the assessee's own corporate name and there was no proof of brand-name use, so SSI exemption remained available and denial of the notifications was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the use of the collaborator's name and the inscription that the goods were manufactured in collaboration with a foreign company amounted to use of another person's brand name or trade name so as to deny small scale industry exemption under the relevant notifications.

Analysis: The words used on the product label only indicated that the goods were manufactured by the assessee under a licence and in collaboration with the foreign collaborator. The collaborator's name was part of the assessee's own corporate name, and there was no proof that the word used on the label was the collaborator's brand name. The label did not create a market identity linking the goods to another person in the manner contemplated by the exemption notifications. The reasoning was supported by earlier Tribunal decisions holding that a reference to technical collaboration or manufacture under licence does not, by itself, amount to use of another person's brand name.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to SSI exemption and the demand based on denial of the notifications was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The exemption under the small scale industry notifications remained available to the assessee, and the impugned orders were liable to be set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: A label merely stating that goods are manufactured under licence or in technical collaboration with another concern does not amount to use of that concern's brand name unless the Revenue establishes that the mark used is in fact the other person's brand or trade name.

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