Geographical indications: Overcoming India’s liabilities of origin by learning from French success stories.

Abstract

This report summarizes our research work over the past ten weeks in trying to critically analyze the geographical indication policies in practice in India. In this context, we have traced the evolution of such regulations in India and in Europe, significant among them being the Paris Agreement and the Lisbon Agreement, not to forget the all-important TRIPS Agreement of the European Union. The salient features of these regulations have been highlighted, and the current status of GI implementation in India has been looked into next. Though there exists quite a stable system of administration in India for the regulation of GIs, it must be said that we are nowhere near France when it comes to organization of the procedures. A comparison of the Indian and French legal systems follows and what we can/cannot adapt from the French legal system has been explored with the minimum knowledge that we possess. However, our findings and thoughts have been validated and verified by interacting with some experts in this field of law and public policy. The report also includes succinct case studies on the Basmati rice and turmeric issue (in the introduction section) and the more recent Tirupati laddu controversy (towards the end of the comparison section) In the other part of the project, we have tried to understand why some of our GI products might find it difficult to get accepted in the West. There are various reasons for the same, some of them being garments unsuitable to Western sensitivities. While the Government can play a role in marketing and promoting GI stamped products in India and abroad (to support and increase exports), there is significant responsibility in the hands of the specific product developers (for instance, kanjeevaram sari developers) . In this context, the cases of Fab India and Jim Thompson assume importance. Their development models have been studied and the report concludes with short pilot one-page summaries of how this can be applied to some GI certified Indian products