22/08/2024
Please accept my obeisances at your feet.
Sri Guru Gauranga Jayatah!
All glories to His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
It is a privilege to be of service to the Vaishnava community. I feel blessed to be able to work in this capacity, but it would be folly to not expect opposition to our current efforts.
Today, a thoughtful young man from India wrote to me privately requesting for evidence of these copyright claims. He heard from his ISKCON authority that some "envious outcastes" are only fabricating trouble to disturb the minds of devotees.
As an embodied jiva, I will not pretend to be completely unshackled from envy, and I've written about my struggles with this if you are interested (link in comments). It is also true that I was born in impious circumstance. But the copyright claims made by ISKCON in various countries are, unfortunately, real — despite Srila Prabhupada's unambiguous guidance against this.
So to satisfy this sincere young devotee's request, I quickly compiled a document of current or pending trademarks by ISKCON for the sacred names "Hare Krishna" and the moniker "Hare Krishna Movement". I've linked this in the comments below.
This is not a complete list, but covers some major western countries and New Zealand where I reside. If anyone would like to further this research, please contact me directly via DM.
Thank you for all of your support. I had no idea how strongly the Vaishnava community would respond, but it has been overwhelming.
paraṁ vijāyate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam
Begging to remain your servant,
Ekendra Dasa