2.2.5 The Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999

The Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 [‘the GIG Act’] seeks to prevent misuse of well known names traditionally used to indicate and identify some particular produce or articles where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of such goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. Basmati Rice, Kancheevaram Saree, Benaras Saree are some of the geographical indication.
Section 11 of the GIG Act empowers an association of persons to apply for the registration of geographical indication. On the registration of geographical indication, only authorized users are eligible to use geographical indication on their products.
However, as per section 24 of the GIG Act, any right to a registered geographical indication can not be assigned, transmitted or licensed. Therefore, there cannot be any taxable IPR service under the GIG Act.