Indian trust registers Don Bosco title, Salesians start legal fight
(March 14, 2011) In India, the Salesians of Don Bosco who run hundreds of Don Bosco
educational institutions and centres have lost the ownership of the title ‘Don Bosco’
to a trust in Madhya Pradesh that has registered the name as its own. After the trust
published a legal notice in newspapers claiming they own the title, the Salesians
have consulted their lawyers to start a legal fight to get it back. Father Louis
Kumpiluvelil, Delhi-based secretary of Don Bosco Institutions in India said, they
were in the process of getting the trade mark, but now they find others have obtained
it. “We will use legal means to get the trade mark back,” he said. The Salesian
order was founded in the 19th century by an Italian priest, St. John Bosco, popularly
known as Don Bosco. The group, which has nearly 20,000 priests and workers, works
largely with underprivileged children and youth. Though the order came to India over
a century ago, they thought of registering their name only in 2010. The owner of
the title ‘Don Bosco’ is now Don Bosco Educational Trust in Chindwara run by a man
called Don Bosco. He complained non-Christians have been running ‘Don Bosco’ schools,
and he has sent a legal notice to a Bangalore-based trust that was running educational
institutions by that name.