GI tags

1. GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS IN INDIA
INTRODUCTION
Every region has its claim to fame. Christopher Columbus sailed from Europe to chart out a
new route to capture the wealth of rich Indian spices. English breeders imported Arabian horses
to sire Derby winners. China silk, Dhaka Muslim, Venetian Glass all were much sought after
treasures. Each reputation was carefully built up and painstakingly maintained by the masters
of that region, combining the best of Nature and Man, traditionally handed over from one
generation to the next for centuries. Gradually, a specific link between the goods and place of
production evolved resulting in growth of geographical indications.
The increase in International competitiveness among the different nation for a globalize world
lead to the country struggle among each other to have a bigger share in the world market.
Registration of products under Geographical Indications has increased exponentially in terms
of global food market in the last 25 years. It has been reported that registration of products
under GI is a profitable market for the Agri-food industries which include consumers
characteristics attitudes, values and goals as well as the products of nature and place of origin.
The main benefits of product having GI registration is that it prevents unauthorized use of the
product, promotes financial gain to the producers by exporting the products and also legal
protection in other World Trade Organization countries.
GI REGISTRATION STATUS IN INDIA
In India, registration of GI products was started in the year 2003. In the first year from April
2004 to March 2005, three products were register.
The Darjeeling Tea both word and logo under agriculture is the first GI register
product follow by handicrafts product Aranmula Kannadi of Kerela and Pochampalli Ikat
from Andhra Pradesh. During the period April 2005 to March 2006, twenty four products from
seven states register their products under GI. The highest registration is during April 2008 to
March 2009 where 45 products from 16 states register their products mostly in handicraft
follow by agriculture. Phulkari a handicraft product has been register from three states of
Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Foreign countries also register their products in India.Eight products from six countries
were register for GI. Out of the eight products, seven belong to alcoholic beverage and one is
meat item. Peru is the first country to register their product Peruvian Pisco, a brandy under

2. manufactured good. This is followed by France Champangne (wine) and Cognac (brandy),
USA Napa Valley (wine), United Kingdom Scotch Whisky, Italy Prosciutto di Parma
(aged meat) and Portugal Porto (wine) and Douro (wine). Till 26th July 2012, a total of 387
applications have submitted for GI and out of that 178 products were registered under GI in
India. The products are mainly handicraft, agriculture, manufacture and foodstuff. Twenty
states and a union territory has registered their product under the Geographical Indication in
four products mainly handicraft, Agricultural, manufactured follow by foodstuff. Handicraft
accounts for 65% of the total product register follow by agriculture (25%), manufactured goods
(8%) and food stuff (2%). The leading states in the registration of GI are Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh, Kerela followed by Tamil Nadu,Goa, Harayana, Nagaland and Punjab are least state
with one GI registration.
INDIA AND GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION ACT
An effective protection for GIs was of considerable importance for a country like India,
which was richly endowed with natural and agricultural products and which already had in its
possession renowned geographical names such as 'Darjeeling'(tea), 'Alphonso' (mango),
'Basmati' (rice), etc., there was no separate legislation on GIs until the enactment of 'The
Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999' (henceforth
the GI Act).
The tea from Kenya, Sri Lanka, have often been passed off around the world as
‘Darjeeling tea’, which originally denotes the fine aromatic produce of the high-altitude areas
of North-Bengal, from where it derives the name. Corporations in France and the US have been
producing rice based on ‘Basmati’ varieties in those countries, and registering trademarks that
refer to ‘Basmati’, thereby seeking to gain from this renowned geographical name. The US-
patent on ‘Basmati Rice Lines and Grains’ granted to Texas based Rice Tec Inc, which
triggered a lot of controversy in the recent past, is a glaring example of wrongful exploitation
of a renowned GI from India.
It is in such a scenario, that the GI Act was enact formulated as part of the exercise in
the country to set in place national intellectual property laws in compliance with India’s
obligations under the TRIPS Agreement. Under this Act, which has come into force with effect
from 15th September 2003, the Central Government has established the ‘Geographical
Indications Registry’ with all India jurisdictions at Chennai, where the right holders can register
their respective GIs. After a GI is registered any person claiming to be the producer of the good

3. designated by the registered GI can file an application for registration as an authorised user.
The GI Act is to be administered by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade
Marks- who is the Registrar of Geographical Indications.
DEFINITION OF GI
 An indication which identifies goods as agricultural ,natural or manufactured.
 Originating or manufactured in the territory of a country or a region or locality.
 Where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of such goods is essentially
attributable to its Geographical origin.
BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION IN INDIA
• Confers legal protection to geographical indications in India.
• It prevents unauthorized use of a registered geographical Indication by others.
• It boosted exports of Indian geographical indications by providing legal protection.
GUIDELINES FOR FILING OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION APPLICATION
The purpose of this guideline is to give elementary information for filing of an application. The
guidelines are subject to requirements of the Act and Rules. An application for registration of
a geographical indication is to be made in writing using a replica of the official application
Form GI-1 for the registration of a Geographical Indication in Part A of the Register by an
Indian applicant; Form GI-2 for a convention application; an application for goods falling in
different classes by an Indian applicant in Form GI-3 and an application for registration of
goods falling in different classes from a convention country in Form GI-4 along with
prescribed fee and should be addressed to the “Registrar of Geographical Indications”,
Chennai. The application should include the various requirements and criteria for processing a
geographical application as specified in Rule 32(1).
APPLICATION FOR GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION IN INDIA
Any association of persons, producers, organization or authority established by or under the
law can apply:
• The applicant must represent the interest of the producers
• The application should be in writing in the prescribed form

4. • The application should be addressed to the Registrar of Geographical Indications
along with prescribed fee.
VALIDITY FOR GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS IN INDIA
The Registration of a Geographical Indication is for a period of tenYears. Renewal is possible
for further periods of 10 years each.
If a Registered geographical indication is not renewed, it is liable to be removed from the
register.
FILING AND GRANT OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS IN INDIA
The Register of Geographical Indication is divided into two parts. Part ‘A’ consists of
particulars relating to registered geographical indications and part ‘B’ consists of particulars of
the registered authorised users.
REGISTRATION DETAILS OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS IN INDIA

5. CONCLUSION
In the present global era where the developed countries are infringing on
other nation products by filling patent right for the product which do not belong to them, the
problem of biopiracy can be prevented by registering the products under the GI. This will not
only prevent the traditional goods from misused but also gain financial profit by exporting the
products to other countries. Comparing with other states of India, the GI protection of North
east India is quite low which means that the region does not get all the potential benefits from
the GI protection. A number of studies conducted around the world concluded that GI help in
increase of prices, marketing strategy, employment and income. The different governments in
the region should adopt a strategy to familiarize the people on GI and its benefit on the rural
people for employment and income generation. This will help in the improvement the living
standard of rural communities which are lacking behind in developmental activities as
compared to the mainstream India due to poor socio economic condition and geographical
location.
REFERENCE
Rajiv D. Kangabam, Medhabati K. and M. Govindaraju.2013.A journal of Environment and
Biodiversity: Importance of Geographical Indication for Conservation of Traditional
Products.vol.4,No.2, April 2013,55-58.
Geographical Indications Registry. 2019. http://ipindia.nic. in/girindia/
World Intellectual Property Organization. 2019. http:// www.wipo.int/geo_indications/en/,
Access on 2019