Judicial Pronouncements of GI TAGS

Judicial pronouncements

Geographical indication, like any other intellectual property, is one of the recently discovered but well-utilized opportunities for products with exceptional differences in quality due to their place of origin or manufacture.

Geographical indications are governed by the Geographical Indications Act of 1999, and goods that fall under the category of GI are assigned specific signs and symbols so that consumers are aware of the product's quality.

With the rising rate of crime, intellectual property rights are also under threat, as many sellers with the wrong intention of simply profiting sell imitated products under the false guise of the original product, and poor consumers unknowingly purchase those products.

There have been several instances where the product has been the subject of a legal dispute. In certain cases, a manufacturer intentionally adds certain words that belong to the original product and sells them in the market under a false impression, such as in one of the foreign cases as the Scotch Whiskey Association case, a whisky company was restrained from using the word ‘scot' in its name as it was a deception for the consumers and created a confusion between the original and imitated product, and the Delhi High Court upheld the same judgement (2007).