Understanding Geographical Indications (G.I)

Geographical indications are fast emerging as a popular trend in the field of Intellectual Property Rights as they pertain to the protection of the qualities and attributes of a product originating from a specific geographical region which holds the ideal condition to aid the production or growth of the commodity. A geographical Indicator helps the producer or manufacturer of a product to distinguish his product as unique and separate it from similar competitive products and also establishes goodwill for the product which fetches prime price. However Geographical Indications also bring with them a host of economic benefits. According to a Survey conducted in 1999 in the European Union it was found that agricultural products registered as GI’s accounted for up to 10- 15 % Premium price and 5- 10 % for Non-Agricultural commodities.

The concept of Geographical Indications is not new but in fact is said to have originated in the 19^th Century. On an International level, the legal framework pertaining to Geographical Indications is laid down in Article 22 of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement. Article 22 directs its member countries to provide the legal means necessary to interested parties in order to secure their GI’s. According to the  TRIPS agreement GIs are defined as indications that  identify a product  as having  originated within the geographical territory  of a member country which may also be a region or locality contained in  that territory, wherein a the quality, reputation or any other specific characteristic of the commodity can be without a doubt attributed  to its ‘geographical origin’. Article 22 provides protection that covers three areas ; It provides Protection against the usage of indications which may be deceptive or which may mislead the general Public, It Provides protection against using indications in a way that would amount to unfair competition and thirdly protection when it comes to invalidating trademarks holding within them indications that may mislead the public.

Geographical indications help in isolating products that originate from a particular geographical location and create goodwill for the product. It has also immensely helped to fight counterfeiting in India.Geographical Indications have many other significant functions depending on the usage of the indicator and how it is ultimately perceived by the consumer. The first function is origin based, the designation provided to the commodity indicates its origin and its relation to that geographical area. The second function relates to quality as the geographical indications signify the unique attributes associated with the product solely because of its geographic point of origin and assure consumers of its high quality along with a satisfaction guarantee. The third function is investment and advertising based, Geographical indications protect the investment of the manufacturer as they render the product unique and also aid in the promotion and advertisement of the commodity. The fourth and most important function is that GI’s protect the culture of a particular territory as the preserve the age old traditional manufacturing process and the overall cultural signature of the product.Geographical indications also help to distinguish between fake and genuine products

In India the primary legislation related to Geographical Indications is the GI Act which was brought into force from September 15^th, 2003 onwards and has been pivotal to granting GI status to many commodities and also extended the scope of this particular area of Intellectual Property Rights. A central government registry for Geographical Indications has been established at Chennai which has nationwide jurisdiction and acts as a platform where GI’s may be registered. The most significant distinction between the Indian GI Act and the International TRIPS Agreement is that the protection offered by a country by means of Geographical Indications is not restricted only to wines and spirits. The Act grants discretionary powers to the central government and gives it the authority to decide which commodities can be protected under GI status. However it is worth mentioning that the registration for geographical Indicators is not mandatory in India.

Intellectual Property Rights; not just a term, but a shield for brands

Structuring and shielding a business brand is not a child’s chore. There are numerous facets that need to be measured in order to be legally protected at the initial stage itself. It is highly crucial to check if the brand name is free and available or else this may cause legal trouble later.

Registration of the trademark is critical too, though not a mandate by law, it is still a good idea to register your trademark; it acts as a shield incase of a legal issue that arises as it protects your brand name nationally. If not at the initial stage then sometime later one might expect to expand the business, which is the time when all this legal work comes into play.  

Also registering a Trademark in itself acts as a means of brand protection service in India. At any given point, whenever the business model plans expansion, to defend your brand against violation you need must register your trademark and follow other IPR guidelines as well.

When it comes to online business, getting a domain name is pretty essential. Even if the business is not strictly online and internet is just a medium to publicise the brand, domain name is needed for creating a company website.  It is a crucial factor to register the best before someone else takes it and you are charged extra for something that, if taken in time would have costed you the minimum.

Other essential quality of following the IPR guidelines is that it minimises the damage caused by duplicate brands, not only for the brand but for the people buying it as well. At an initial stage, one is not sure as to how the business design will widen. Despite the fact that any business is at a starting phase, there might be a day that sees exceptional prospects to expand the brand in not just India but across the globe. Hence, It is also important to have a brand identity that is well protected against infringement. For the same, one needs to make sure that the brand is protected against bootlegging of any kind. Originality is an essence of every successful business. Original quality and brand is an integral part of a progressive trade and economy. Hence, if not protected against infringement, the fakes might overtake by stealing the brand identity and creating duplicates that will hurt your brand image and reputation.

There are companies such as Brands and Fakes running successfully that help you identify and fight all kinds of IPR threats prevailing in the economy. Though, it is extremely important that in order to stop this venom of duplicity from spreading into the society, you follow and encourage the importance of IPR.

Intellectual Property Right Solutions- Ambiguous in our minds not under law

Every single day makes us realize that there are so many duplicates and copies existing in this world. Be it a copy of the DVD of our favorite movie or a name of an eating joint, sometimes nattily and sometimes disorderly designed to match the name and pattern of our favourite restaurant. What do we generally do in such scenarios? Ignore it? Or probably walk away laughing at the situation. But we must understand that there is much more to such copies or fakes than a hearty laughter.

A design, logo, trademark or such work is referred to as intellectual property. These intellectual properties are governed by IP Laws and matters related to them fall under IPR issues. IPR plays an extremely important role in almost every quarter while talking about any kind of intellectual property related to businesses and work of art. These also include investment and new venture decisions. Anyone who thinks about, analyses and produces any form of product, needs to have some kind of access to IPR related laws and rules to avoid conflict of interest with some other variety, not just at that point in time but also for future reference.

There are full-fledged businesses these days working towards the protection of brands and providing exhaustive services in cases of IPR infringement. Brands and Fakes is one such platform providing best in class brand protection services in India.  Brands and fakes essentially brings brand owners, consumers, IPR professionals and industry thought leaders together to fight forgery and all other violations related to IPR. It also provides entrée to consumers, volunteers and IPR professionals for capturing, validating and managing information on fake products & other IPR infringements. At Brands and Fakes, we use the power of internet, mobile and social media to manage information on violations related to IPR and instigate a course of action against fake products & violators. In addition to this, Brands and Fakes also provides you with all Patent related Services, trade mark related Services, Registration of designs and copyrights, Patent/ Trademark and copyrights related Agreements, Corporate Agreements etc.

For a layman or an ordinary consumer, differentiating between products from copies is an uncertain situation. There are instances wherein distinguish between fake and genuine products is not very difficult, which is in the cases of apparent disparity. But some brands have noteworthy similarity and it becomes very difficult to spot the difference in one go. Though, whatever the case maybe, copying another brand in terms of anything, be it design, logo, name etc amounts to IPR infringement. And it is the work of specialized agencies to investigate and collect data on IPR violations in India. Working towards achieving this goal are lawyers, investigative agents, agencies and a plethora of other people. At Brands and Fakes, we provide you all these specialisations under one roof.

Being an extremely competitive global economy, IPR issues in India are rising at an alarming rate. Copying or imitating a brand, piece of art, discovery etc without the consent of the owner is a crime under the IPR guidelines set out by our law. IPR in itself is a full-bodied subject. A license under IPR such as Trademark Registration, Copyright protection etc provides you with legitimate ownership of that product. On having the registration a brand manages to save itself from not just crucial and never ending court proceedings but also manages to create an image of a trustworthy brand. Moreover, it also provides monetary compensation and claim of damages.

As a brand owner, it is one’s duty and right to follow the guidelines of IPR and seek restoration of rights under the same in case of violation.

Brands and Fakes Web Based Platform: Avoiding Copyright Infringement

Have you ever uploaded an image or a video to a website, only for it to be deleted because of copyright issues? While some areas of copyright law can be complicated enough to cause copyright lawyers sleepless nights, the basics are very simple. Armed with some simple principles, you can save yourself from running afoul of copyright law.

Understand the scope of copyright law. 

It does protect literary works, paintings, photographs, drawings, films, music (and its lyrics), choreography, sculptures and many other things. It generally doesn't protect the underlying ideas, and it does not protect facts. For example, copyright doesn't prevent you from expressing in your own words ideas and facts found in a book or journal you read (but you should always give appropriate credit to the sources in which you found them; it is common courtesy to do so, and not doing so could constitute a violation of the Copyright Act as what you have created may constitute a derivative work pursuant to the Copyright Act, unless you have obtained license or permission from the copyright holder to create the same). It may also constitute plagiarism under state common law.

Don't take anything from the Internet, or anywhere else, because it is almost always copyrighted, by default. 

"I found it on the Internet" is not a defense against copyright infringement; works on the Internet are as copyrightable as any other kind of work. Nor is "it didn't say it was copyrighted." In nearly all jurisdictions and all other Berne Convention signatories, it is not necessary for a work to have an explicit copyright notice for it to be copyrighted. It is also not necessary for copyright in a work to be registered; this simply makes it easier to be compensated in court. Without an explicit dedication to the public domain, assume that it is still under copyright.

Don't confuse copyrights, trademarks, and other forms of "intellectual property."

The term "intellectual property rights" itself, and the kind of thinking it encourages, has led to these very different things being confused with each other. Trademarks, for example, forbid using certain words, marks, symbols, and so on within certain contexts, to protect consumers from misrepresentation. Copyright would not prevent you from, for example, writing some new text editor software and calling it "Microsoft Text Editor", but trademark law would.

Be creative.

If ever you wonder whether a certain action would infringe on the copyright of someone else, the question to ask is: is this a creative work on my count, or am I simply drawing from the creativity of someone else? Lunches, as any economist would tell you, are not free. Some examples:

·         Scanning something yourself does not, by itself, give you a new copyright over anything. You cannot scan a photograph from, say, a magazine and then put it on the Internet; the copyright would still reside with the author of the work. The flip-side of this is that scanning a work which is in the public domain would not, in many jurisdictions, give you the copyright over the resulting scan.

·         Taking a screenshot of a video or a computer program does not generate a new copyright. The copyright in the resulting screenshot would still be held by the copyright holder of the original video or computer program.

·         Some non-creative things are not copyrightable, for example, a plain text logo in a generic font. Neither are simple geometric shapes. But don't rely on this unless you are certain.

Learn about the public domain laws for your jurisdiction. 

"Public domain" is short-hand for "uncopyrighted", not "publicly distributed". A work can be out of copyright due to age, by the nature of authorship, or other reasons.

Don't rely on "fair use" called "fair dealing" in many jurisdictions, fair use is simply a guarantee that copyright laws do not infringe freedom of speech and make critical commentary impossible.

Some uses of text under "fair use" are teaching, critiques, comments, reporting, and research. It permits, for example, limited quoting of copyrighted material. In some jurisdictions, it would allow creating a copy for personal use (such as a backup)^[4]. It is not a blank cheque granting you a right to do anything at all and call it "fair use". Fair use is an extremely complex body of case law; it is often very difficult for non-lawyers to tell in advance whether or not a certain use will be considered fair use in court. If in doubt, seek permission first.

Be wary about writing fiction based on other works. 

It was said above that "ideas cannot be copyrighted". However, fictional characters, story-lines, and settings can be copyrighted (insofar as they are original). This means that fan-fiction, drawings of characters from copyrighted works, and so on are all technically copyright infringements. Sometimes copyright holders turn a blind eye to this sort of thing, but unless it has been explicitly authorised, don't count on this being the case.