Potential of GIs is waiting to be tapped

On August 2, Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Commerce and Industry, unveiled a beautiful tricolour logo that is common for all Geographical Indications (GI) with an equally impressive tagline “invaluable treasures of incredible India”.

GI indicates the ‘link’ between the place and the product, where the link could be the natural resources, climatic factor or human skills that render uniqueness to the product.

The essential difference between GI and other intellectual properties (IP) is that, GI is a collective intellectual property right and is thus owned by all the producers within the defined GI territory while the IPs like patent and trademark are owned by an individual or a business entity.

Therefore, while the commercial use of patent for instance could benefit an innovator or a particular firm, commercialisation of GI would benefit all the producers in the GI territory. Apart from promoting tourism and rural development, some of the Sustainable Development Goals like empowering women, fostering sustainable communities and reducing poverty may be achieved through effective implementation of GI.

The potential of GI has not yet been realised in India as the efforts have so far mainly focused on the first step of filing the GI applications (Part A of the GI registration).

Filing a GI application is a huge task that involves documenting historical evidences about the linkage of the product with the region and the application has to be filed by an association or group of persons. Hence, in comparison with the incidence of diversity in handicrafts or agricultural products from different parts of India only about 320 products identified from different parts of the country have so far been registered with the GI registry.

GI products like Kanchipuram saris, Darjeeling tea, Channapatna toys, Gir kesar mango, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri Kokum, Kulu shawls, Ratlami sev, Pochampalli Ikat, are a few brands in their own right.

Mere filing of the GI applications amounts to cultural accounting of regional products. Post registration activities in terms of utilising the GI certification as a marketing/branding tool to benefit the producers has not been attempted in most of the registered products due to limited awareness about GI in the country among producers, consumers and policy makers. A common logo for GI awareness, long advocated by researchers, is now in place.

Logos convey a specific message to the consumers about the product. An ISI or an Agmark assures the consumer about the quality. After 15 years of the GI Registry coming into being, we now have a logo that is common for all registered GIs.

Positioning the GI logo

However, mere unveiling of the logo will not serve any purpose for the producers of registered GIs in India. Enormous human efforts and financial resources are required to position the common GI logo so that it is used as a marketing tool. The GI logo needs to be widely popularised so that consumers associate the GI logo with the uniqueness and authenticity of GI products. It is going to be an immense challenge to determine the protocols for actual use by ‘producers’ and prevent the misuse of the logo.

Section 2 (1) (k) of the GI Act (1999) defines the “producer in relation to goods, means any person who: if such goods are agricultural goods, produces the goods and includes the person who processes or packages such goods; if such goods are natural goods, exploits the goods; If such goods are handicrafts or industrial goods makes or manufactures the goods and includes any person who trades or deals in such production, exploitation, making or manufacturing as the case may be of the goods”.

Given the above definition, the term producer can include any one who ‘deals’/‘exploits’ the GI product and thus could include a wide range of stakeholders including a trade facilitator, online marketer, who may or may not belong to the specified GI territory of the product.

It would have been useful had the registered proprietors of GI identified the value chain and registered the authorised users (which is known as part B of GI registration) that would have vastly facilitated the modus operandi of implementing the use of GI logo.

As the definition of the authorised user is synonymous with that of the GI Producer, hence, identifying the authorised users would have been helpful in checking GI infringement. Sadly, a number of associations has even renewed the GI registration of their products without completing the part B part of the GI registration.

Further, many of the GI applications have been filed by a small group of actual producer members or by government organisations and the majority of the ‘producers’ (other stakeholders in the value chain) are unaware of the GI registration itself.

Thus, implementing the common logo for GI becomes a herculean task. So where does the solution lie?

First and foremost the use of common GI logo has to be inclusive of all the stake holders in the value chain and collective efforts in organising them is the need of the hour. For example, at the product level, besides the producer organisations (covering all the producers in the specified geographic region should be formed) other stakeholders like traders, processors, packagers etc of a particular GI product should be organised into groups/associations.

These different associations should work in unison in the actual use of the logo in all their transactions to promote the sale of genuine GI products and design strategies to prevent the misuse of the logo.

When the consumers are assured of the authenticity, they would be willing to pay more for the original GI products. Increase in demand would encourage the producers to take efforts to sustain the uniqueness of the product and cater to the niche market that is hungry for authentic products.

Marketing tool

Many GI products are known in a limited geographical territory. Promotion of common GI logo will create an edge for GI products over similar products. It will also bring more awareness among consumers in distant markets as well and result in increased demand for the GI products. This will check distress migration, promote biodiversity, prevent artisans and farmers leaving their livelihoods and importantly arrest the erosion of traditional knowledge and practices.

While unveiling the logo, the Minister had mentioned that GI products would be displayed for sale in airports, railway stations and other important places.

India must take a leaf out of Thailand’s experience, which has successfully showcased its GI logo. Such efforts should start with all the State emporiums and handicraft hubs where products are on permanent display. There should be clear signboards with GI logos on the national highways or major bus/railway stations/airports about the GI Production centres in that region and information about the sales points where the products may be procured.

India has rich diversity in a wide variety of handicrafts and agricultural products. Encouraging the producers to earn economic returns through authenticating the product with GI logo will help consumers to make an informed decision and help millions of livelihoods dependent on such products.

Lalitha is with Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad, Vinayan with Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, and Anson with Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi

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