online education product in MLM Legalities

Online Education product in MLM : Legalities

There are a lot of excellent products, like online education, out there that is being traded in the MLM market along with some fake/useless products which are there just for the name sake and some of those product/services may not be fully legal. As a provider of one the best products available today in the MLM market we think that it is important to us that we can convey how and why our product is completely genuine and legal so here we will try to explain why.

Anyone can claim that their product is legal and/or genuinely useful but we can provide you details after going through them you’ll be sure and agree with us that our product is certainly legal, genuine and useful.

  1.   There are a lot of companies out there that provides Education through Internet and emerging in their fields and disrupting the education sector. The popularity of these companies is an evidence that providing Online Education is cent present legal.

Now the question remains whether providing Online Education Services in Direct Selling is legal?

  1.   According to Direct Selling guidelines 2016 Direct Selling entity can conduct sales of any service which is defined in the Consumer Protection Act 1986. Which defines “service” as the following :

“service” means service of any description which is made avail­able to potential users and includes, but not limited to, the provision of facilities in connection with banking, financing insurance, transport, processing, supply of electrical or other energy, board or lodging or both, housing construction, entertainment, amusement or the purveying of news or other information, but does not include the rendering of any service free of charge or under a contract of personal service;

This means that any service that is covered under this definition is legit to be sold by a Direct Selling entity. As we know Internet and Online Education was not a considerable phenomenon in 1986 but it can be categorised as “purveying of news or other information” part of this definition which makes our service a legitimate service that can be sold to the end user.

  1.   Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks – a department of Industrial Policy & Promotion which is part of Ministry of Commerce & Industry overlooks the trademarks and patent applications. They classify trademark classes for goods and services which means if they identify a class of service, that class of service is considered a legit service under which a business entity or individual can apply for trademark registration.

Here is link to document provided on their website : http://www.ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOGuidelinesManuals/1_32_1_tmr-draft-manual.pdf

On page 40 of this document (Point – 10.2) Specifies the classification of service. In that point in 2nd paragraph and second last line it is mentioned that it should be according to the “NICE Classification” which concludes that the services mentioned in “NICE Classification” are not only legit but recognized by Intellectual Property Department – Govt. of India.

Here is the link to the NICE Classification that recognizes Educational Services as a valid legitimate trademark class :

http://web2.wipo.int/classifications/nice/nicepub/en/fr/edition-20170101/taxonomy/class-41/?pagination=no&lang=en&mode=flat&explanatory_notes=show&basic_numbers=show

On this page we can find the classification of Services in Education & Entertainment category we can find a lot of categories that is defining Online Education.

For example the following :

  • 410048 education information
  • 410049 educational examination
  • 410208 providing films, not downloadable, via video-on-demand transmission services
  1.   According to Direct Selling Guidelines refers Consumer Protection Act 1986 for defining products and services that means the only prohibited products or services are “spurious goods and services”  (as mentioned in the Act) and are not allowed to be traded. “spurious goods and services” is defined in Consumer Protection Act 1986 as “mean such goods and services which are claimed to be genuine but they are actually not so”. This prohibition is not just on Direct Selling entities but on business of any nature. To establish that the online education service we provide by our videos are genuine and NOT related to any fraudulent activity and does not fall under the category of “spurious goods and services” we have copyrighted our work.

Along with that a detailed description of deliverables will be provided to clarify the service to the end user.

  1.   We provide DISTRIBUTION LICENSE & SERVICE AGREEMENT that states the services from our end and clarify our responsibilities as service provider to you and your users. This agreement ensures that your users will get the service that we promised to you and entitles you to be the distribution licensee of the services.

In addition to all of these points about why Online Education is completely legitimate we would like to point out that Government of India is proudly promoting their initiatives like Digital India & Skill India which encourages enterprises to work in skill developments through innovative business models and technologies.