Du IP Café

Trade Should be for the People and Not of the People...! Eleventh World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC11) is scheduled in Buenos Aires, Argentina during 10-13 th December, 2017 and is critically important from India's perspective as it is necessary to safeguard her interests in the field of agriculture, e-commerce and investment. This post discusses the hot issue of public stockholdings, food security and position of India here in Buenos Aires. Wide concerns are being raised about finding a permanent legal solution to India's purchasing and public distribution of food grains at reasonable prices and is a priority issue for the 11 th WTO Ministerial Conference. Public Stockholding is a kind of policy instrument used by a Government to procure, stock and distribute the food whenever the need arises. Minimum Support Price (MSP) is one of the instruments of Public Stockholding. Stockpiling and distributing food is permitted under WTO Rules,

The revolution of Geographical Indications (GI) in India is happening and its real. Increased foot fall at the GI Pavilion during #WorldFoodIndia held at India Gate, New Delhi was a proof that the consumer is getting aware and well acquainted with what GI is! The GI pavilion was visited by many Ministers and Bureaucrats from the Capital. All of the exhibited GI products were wholeheartedly praised by the visitors with an following exact words with an exclamatory question "Does something like this exist in India..?" and the next line was that investments should be made in bringing all these gems at forefront in the market all over India to start with.  After the introduction of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 which came into effect from 2002, it took almost 15 years to see such praise to the GI products of India.  For those do not know, Geographical Indications Rights is the only form of Intel

Few days back, I had an opportunity to deliver a lecture at Symbiosis Law College, Pune to final year students on the drafting of collaboration Agreement with foreign party for trademark licensing in India. In my presentation  I have tried to cover as many inter related laws and provisions as possible as a part of due diligence while drafting the Agreement.  Suggestions / Comments.. Welcome :-) ~ until next time ~

A question from the editor of a magazine invigorated me to write this post. The question was directed to the procedure of registration of Geographical Indications (GI) in India. A lot has been said regarding the formal procedure which ends with a high note that the procedure is lengthy and complex. However, not much has been said or written giving practical insights about the procedural intricacies and that's what this post is about! Categorize the goods at hand: whether it is agricultural, handicraft, manufactured or natural goods? Moving on, find out the need for protection of the particular community product. A little bit of market research of the product would prove to be useful in establishing the case later, if required. If there has been misappropriation of the name of the product then record the incident with the available evidences such as news, analytical report etc. Before commencing the drafting of application, an applicant, necessarily representing the intere

GENERIC GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS - AN ANTITHESIS! Geographical Indications sometimes may prove to be a self destructive mechanism if not fiercely guarded by the community involved in the manufacture or cultivation of the product. Starting with this controversial statement, I would be touching upon a delicate issue of Generic Geographical Indications and try to analyze the legal provisions and some of the cases. Geographical Indications that are no longer understood by the common people to indicate a specific origin of goods, but that cannot denote a specific kind or category or product, may cease to function as distinctive signs capable of benefiting from protection. There have been and still are lot of controversies and debates over couple of questions surrounding the topic captioned above as -  When does an indication or a designation become a generic or common name for the goods? What are the factors that need to be considered in determining the same? I have come acros

ALPHONSO MANGO - AN IDENTITY CRISIS..? The issue of Alphonso Mango and Geographical Indication has come back on the table for a hearing to decide upon the existing and non-existing dichotomy.  Taking a queue from my earlier post , I stand by what I have said asserting the position of Ratnagiri Alphonso Mango, Devgad Alphonso Mango in the light of Geographical Indications. I would like a quote a paragraph from a research article titled " An Environment Appraisal of Jaigad-The Proposed Site for the 1200MW Mega Thermal Power Plant” published by The Green Alternatives, Mumbai (2007), Dr. P.R. Arun, while discussing the unique agricultural biodiversity of Ratnagiri region said: “The conservation value of this area is further enhanced because of the unique Ratnagiri Alphonso mangoes . Ratnagiri Alphonso variety of mangoes is produced only from this small region, and is a delicacy for mango lovers all over the world. It is time that the Government take the necessary

Geographical Indications (GI) is the form of Intellectual Property (IP) which has been attracting attention of policy-makers, lawyers, economists as well as producers (particularly in agriculture sector) since the adoption of TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement. The major reason for this attention could be that GI is the only form of IP which is owned by whole producing community and not just an individual or an enterprise.  GIs are basically distinguishing signs that are used to identify competing goods particularly in the international market wherein the extent of losses due to counterfeit goods is huge.  The use of Geographical Origin brands comes up with its own set of challenges. Considering the collective nature of GIs, the producers must organize themselves, bring in collective actions pertaining to production standards, quality standards & control, product distribution and marketing as well. This post particularly deals with