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Law of Geographical Indications in India

A geographical indication is a sign used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possesses qualities or a reputation that are due to that place of origin. In recent years, geographical indications (GIs) has emerged as one of the most important instruments of protecting the quality, reputation or other characteristics of goods, which are essentially attributable to their geographical origin. Geographical indications has proved to be very valuable as it identifies the source of the product and is an indicator of quality. Most commonly, a geographical indication consists of the name of the place, which is the origin of the goods, such as “Darjeeling” (India) for tea, “Stilton” (England) for cheese, “Swiss” (Switzerland) for chocolate, “Roquefort” (France) for cheese etc.

Agricultural products typically have qualities that are derived from their place of production and are influenced by specific local factors, such as climate and soil. The use of geographical indications is not limited to agricultural products. They may also highlight peculiar qualities of a product, which are due to human factors, such as specific manufacturing skills and traditions.

Geographical indications (GIs) is an invention of the Trips-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, which came into effect from January 1, 1995. The TRIPS Agreement prescribes minimum standards of protection of geographical indications and additional protection for wines and spirits. Articles 22-24 of Part II, Section III of the TRIPS Agreement prescribes minimum standards of protection of geographical indications that World Trade Organization (WTO) members must provide. Geographical indications owes it origin to the Paris Convention, 1983. Although, the Convention does not use the expression “Geographical Indications”, Article 1 (2) of the Convention used the terms “appellation of origin” and “indications of source”. The scope of these expressions has been delineated by the Lisbon and the Madrid Conventions. 

The Indian judiciary has played a significant role in protecting geographical indications. India has taken legislative measures by enacting the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, which came into effect on 15^th September, 2003 along with the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Rules, 2002.

Geographical indications may be used for a wide variety of products, such as Basmati Rice, Darjeeling Tea, Kangra Tea, Alphonso Mango, Alleppey Green Cardamom, Coorg Cardamom, Kanchipuram Silk Saree, Kohlapuri Chappal etc. Geographical indications require protection because they are understood by consumers as denoting the origin and quality of the products. Many of them have acquired valuable reputations, which if not adequately protected, would be misappropriated by dishonest commercial operators.  False use of geographical indications by unauthorized parties is detrimental to the consumers and the legitimate users. The former are deceived into buying products which are, in fact, worthless imitations. While for the latter, valuable business is taken away from them and the established reputation for their products is damaged.

Registration of Geographical Indications

An application for the registration of a geographical indication is to be made in triplicate accompanied by five additional representations of the geographical indications, in the prescribed form, viz.,

1.      Form GI-I : An Indian application to register a geographical indication in any one class.

2.      Form GI-I : An application to register a geographical indication in any one class from a convention country.

3.      Form GI-I : A single application to register geographical indications for different classes of goods.

Contents of Application - The application should include the various requirements and satisfy the criteria as per Section 11 (2) of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 and as per Rule 32 (1) of the Geographical Indications (Registration and Protection) Rules, 2002:

1.      Statement as to how the geographical indication serves to designate the goods as originating from the concerned territory of the country or region or locality in the country in respect of specific quality, reputation or other characteristics which are exclusively or essentially due to the geographical environment

2.      The class of goods

3.      The geographical map of the territory of the country or region or locality in the country

4.      The particulars regarding the appearance of the geographical indication, whether it comprises of words or figurative elements or both

5.      A statement containing particulars of the producers of the concerned goods

6.      An affidavit as to how the applicant claims to represent the interest of the association of persons or producers or any organization or authority established by or under any law

7.      The standard benchmarks or other characteristics of the geographical indication

8.      Three certified copies of the map of the territory, region, locality showing the title, name of publisher and date of issue

9.      Special human skills involved or the uniqueness of the geographical environment or other inherent characteristics associated with the geographical indication

India – Identifying Products for Geographical Indications

In an effort to identify products that are region-specific and that could be registered, Minister of State for Commerce, Shri Jairam Ramesh, recently held discussions with various Commodity Boards under the Ministry in June 2006. During these discussions, it was decided that the Coffee Board would register Monsooned Malabar variety that is exclusive to the Malabar region from Kozhikode to Mangalore. The Spices Board have also identified 61 varieties, out of which the Tellichery Pepper and Malabar Pepper are in the process of being registered.  On the contentious issue of Basmati Rice, India and Pakistan are holding dialogues for the joint filing of the geographical indication before the US and European agencies while simultaneously, the domestic application for geographical indication will be filed by Agriculture & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) will be considered.