PSIR Simplified

The GI or Geographical indication is a tag/certificate  granted to a material good or material objects, which is unique to a particular geographical region or place.

The grant of GI tag is regulated by the Geographical Indicators of the Goods Act, 1999, passed by the Indian Parliament. This act was passed  to give effect to the provisions of TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement, of the World Trade Organization.

the Geographical Indicators of the Goods Act, 1999 provides the mechanism for the award of GI indicators to products and goods in India.

The Act provides for the establishment  of the Geographical Indications Registry, which is based in Chennai.

This registry functions under the Department of promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, government of India.

Procedure of Obtaining GI tag/Certificate

1. The applicant should file application before the Registry for the award of GI tag with details of the product and its link with the geographical region. The Applicant can be only an association, community organization or group of producers. An individual cannot apply for GI tag.
2. The detail submitted are verified by experts of the Registry to ensure that the product is unique to the region mentioned in the application.
3. If details are found true and verified, the Registry publishes the Application in the Official Journal of the Registry for inviting objections from the interested parties. If no objection is received for usually three to four months, the GI tag is granted to the applied products by the registry in the form of a certificate to that effect.

General Conditions of GI tags in India

1. GI tag can be granted to only material objects, goods and handicrafts. It cannot be granted to an idea or abstract thing.
2. Once granted, the GI tag is valid for 10 years and may be extended further for any number of times.
3. The GI tag cannot be transferred or licensed or sold to some other entity by its owner.

Are Indian GI tags globally Protected?

The Indian GI tags are protected in India in the sense no other geographical region can use the same GI tag. But the Indian GI tags are not automatically protected at global level in other countries.

The Article 22 of the TRIPS agreement only provide for the standards and authorizes the member states to issue GI tag.  It does not provide any protection to the GI tags at global level.

Article 23 of the TRIPS Agreement provides for the enhanced protection of  only wines and spirits. India is trying to get enhanced its scope to include agricultural products.

However, GI tags can be protected globally by the following two ways:

First, the government of India may sign bilateral agreement with countries to get protection of Indian GI tags. But the Indian government is seeking such protection in case of selected GI tags like Darjeeling Tea or Mysore Silk.

Second, the GI tag can be registered separately under the different conventions like Paris Convention (industrial property rights), if India is member of such conventions.

There is no other way to gain global protection to the India GI tags.