Know More about G.I. Tag
-Dr. Debashis Mukherjee, eminent Advocate
The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act 1999 is a sui generis Act of the Parliament of India for protection of geographical indications in India, as a member of the World Trade Organisation, enacted the Act to comply with the agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
The G. I. tag ensures that none other than those registered as authorized users are allowed to use the popular product name. Darjeeling Tea became the first G.I. tagged product in India in 2004 --- 05, since then 323 goods have been added to the list till August 2018.
According to Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, goods means any agricultural, natural or manufactured goods or any goods of handicraft or of industry and includes foodstuff.
For example, the famous Rasgolla of Bengal has recently got the G. I Tag. The term "indication" according to the Act means any name, geographical or figurative representation or any combination of them conveying or suggesting the geographical origin of goods to which it applies. The Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks appointed under section 3 ( 1 ) of the Trade Mark Act 1999 shall be the Registrar of Geographical Indications.
According to Section 6 ( 1 ) of the Act, a record called the Register of Geographical Indications shall be kept at the head office of the Geographical Indications Registry wherein shall be entered all registered geographical indications with the names, addresses and descriptions of authorized users and such other matters relating to registered geographical indications as may be prescribed and such register may be maintained wholly or partly on computer. The register as referred to in section 6 of the Act, shall be divided into two parts called Part A and Part B.
According to Section 9 of the Act, there are the certain prohibition of Registration of certain Geographical Indications e.g which comprises or contains scandalous or obscene matter, the use of which would be contrary to any law for the time being in force, the use of which would be likely to deceive or cause confusion, etc.
According to Section 18 ( 1 ) of the Act, the registration shall be for a period of ten years but may be renewed from time to time in accordance with the provisions of this section. According to Section 18 ( 4 ) of the Act, the Registrar may remove the geographical indication or the authorized user from the Register.
According to Section 18 ( 5 ) of the Act, where a geographical indication or authorized user has been removed from the register for nonpayment of the prescribed fee, the Registrar shall after six months and within one year from the expiration of the last registration of the geographical indication or the authorized user, on receipt of an application in the prescribed form and on payment of prescribed fee, if satisfied, restore the geographical indication or authorized user as the case may be.
There was a bitter war between West Bengal and Odisha regarding G. I. Tag of Rasgolla when West Bengal got G. I. Tag for its variety of rasgolla in November 2017 many people wrongly believed that the G. I. Registry has recognized that sweet originated in West Bengal. The bitter fight ensued between the two states over the sweet delicacy, both on social media and off it.
The G. I. Tag for the same product to both the neighboring states now recognizes two distinct varieties in taste and texture. The Odisha rasgolla is very soft to feel, juicy, and non-chewy in consistency and can be swallowed without teeth pressure.
The rasgolla prepared in other places is a circular shape, milk-white in colour and basically spongy and chewy in consistency.
While Bengal claims the sweet was invented by Nabin Chandra Das at Kolkata, Odisha cite the tradition dating back to the 12th century of the cottage cheese dumpling offered at the Puri Lord Jagannath Temple.
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