The 80-year old Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), the national professional body of pharmacists engaged in various facets of the profession of pharmacy, will soon approach the national Trade Marks Registry (TMR) for the exclusive right of its acronym, IPA. A decision to approach the TMR, claiming absolute ownership of the acronym, has been taken in a virtual meeting by the newly elected office-bearers of the IPA last week.

The association has found that the abbreviated form of its name is used by a pharmacist body based in Delhi for the last some years and state branches are being formed using the short-form.

The Indian pharmaceutical association has been using the abbreviation, IPA, from the year 1939 when it was registered as a national professional body of pharmacists with headquarters in Calcutta. Later, after independence, the head office was shifted to Bombay in 1948.

“All documents and files related to the acronym have been entrusted to the auditor of the association who will submit the records to the TMR shortly. On receiving the reply from the Registrar, IPA will write to the pharmacist association in Delhi not to use the acronym in any of their correspondences or communications in future,” said Dr TV Narayana after his re-election as president of the IPA.

He said the IPA will also want the pharmacist group to delete the acronym from all their letter-heads and advise them to direct their state branches not to use the short-form thereafter. He said unauthorized usage of the abbreviation by other professional groups creates confusion among pharmacy associations in India and outside of the original body. IPA is ready to absorb any association and it always supports the pharmacist community. But the abbreviation is an exclusive right of the organization which started functioning in the country before the independence.

According to him, IPA does not want to raise any challenge or generate controversy over the acronym but will not allow infringing its ownership by other associations because the acronym is like a trademark registration or a registered title.

J Jayaseelan, chairman of the industry pharmacy division of the IPA, said no other association can claim the acronym of the national pharmacist professional body of the country. All the segments of the pharmacy sector in India have the imprint of IPA.

Subhash Mandal, chairman of the regulatory pharmacy division of the IPA and deputy drugs controller in West Bengal, said it is the absolute right of the association to use the acronym and as per the copyright act of the country it is their privilege and IPA will apply for the exclusive right.

Pragna Ella, national president of the IPA Students Forum has opined that the Delhi based pharmacist group can use a title with ‘National’ or ‘All India’ as every registered pharmacist is working for strengthening the pharmacy profession.

Dr Narayana said IPA has at present 21 state branches, 62 local branches and it has membership strength of 16,000 life members. The association brings out two pharmacy journals every month.