Geographical Indication (GI) Registration

Geographical Indication registration protects the unique identity of a product that comes from a specific place — Darjeeling tea, Kanchipuram silk, Basmati, a regional handicraft — under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999. A GI identifies goods as originating from a territory where a given quality, reputation or characteristic is essentially attributable to that origin. The application under Section 11 of the Act is filed by the producers' association or the authority representing the producers, with the statement of case, the map, and the history and production method of the product.

The GI is the collective brand of a region's producers. Registered, it gives the producers the exclusive right to use the mark and the legal tool to stop non-originators from trading on the region's name. Unregistered, the name is open to everyone — a product's reputation built over generations is diluted by outsiders using the same name for products that do not carry the region's characteristics.

The cost of an unregistered GI is the classic dilution story: the name becomes generic, the premium disappears, and the region's producers cannot stop the copies because they hold no exclusive right. The registration also carries a discipline — the producers must maintain the quality and the standard that the GI represents, and the registration runs through the Act's examination and opposition process.

This service is for producer groups, state agencies and associations seeking GI protection. We prepare the GI application under Section 11 of the GI Act 1999 — the statement of case, the history, the production method and the map — file it with the GI Registry, respond to the examination and the objections, and manage the registration through to the certificate.