A Study on the Quality Control and Enforcement of Registered Geographical Indication Goods in India

Abstract

AbstractQuality assurance of Geographical Indication (GI) forms the economic rationale for protecting GI as a part of Intellectual Property (IP). India, a territory with rich flora and fauna, can utilise the protection with maximum registrations. However, based on a preliminary observation made in this paper, the corresponding registered users of each GIs are less than expected. Such a situation creates a big question on the scope of GI based brand establishment and quality control aspects. Especially when compared with European countries, the quality-control regulation of the products seems to be a less prioritised area in the policy discourse. Consequently, the quality authentication and characteristic linkage of the GI protected product to the place of origin remains uncredible in many cases. This weak connection between GI registration and quality assurance has negatively affected the sole purpose of the creation of such a sui-generis system in India and hampered the economics of GIs. With this view, the statutory quality control mechanism has been studied in the three phases. The first phase enumerates the quality control mechanism under the GI Act of India, followed by an enquiry into the pattern of assuring quality by the applicants from the top five GI-bearing Indian states in the second phase. Finally, in the third phase, the quality control system of the internationally reputed Indian originated GIs has been studied to identify prevalent quality control related gaps therein.KeywordsGI and quality controlEnforcement of GIAuthorised users