Act, 1999 ______Arrangement of Sections ______Chapter I Preliminary Sections 1
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THE GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS OF GOODS (REGISTRATION AND PROTECTION) ACT, 1999 ______________ ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS ___________ CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY SECTIONS 1. Short title, extent and commencement. 2. Definitions and interpretation. CHAPTER II THE REGISTER AND CONDITIONS FOR REGISTRATION 3. Registrar of Geographical Indications. 4. Power of Registrar to withdraw or transfer cases, etc. 5. Geographical Indications Registry and offices thereof. 6. Register of Geographical Indications. 7. Part A and Part B of the register. 8. Registration to be in respect of particular goods and area. 9. Prohibition of registration of certain geographical indications. 10. Registration of homonymous geographical indications. CHAPTER III PROCEDURE FOR AND DURATION OF REGISTRATION 11. Application for registration. 12. Withdrawal of acceptance. 13. Advertisement of application. 14. Opposition to registration. 15. Correction and amendment. 16. Registration. 17. Application for registration as authorised user. 18. Duration, renewal, removal and restoration of registration. 19. Effect of removal from register for failure to pay fee for renewal. CHAPTER IV EFFECT OF REGISTRATION 20. No action for infringement of unregistered geographical indication. 21. Rights conferred by registration. 22. Infringement or registered geographical indications. 23. Registration to be prima facie evidence of validity. 24. Prohibition of assignment or transmission, etc. 1 CHAPTER V SPECIAL, PROVISIONS RELATING TO TRADE MARK AND PRIOR USERS SECTIONS 25. Prohibition of registration of geographical indication as trade mark. 26. Protection to certain trade marks. CHAPTER VI RECTIFICATION AND CORRECTION OF THE REGISTER 27. Power to cancel or vary registration and to rectify the register. 28. Correction of register. 29. Alteration of registered geographical indications. 30. Adaptation of entries in register to amend or substitute classification of goods. CHAPTER VII APPEALS TO THE APPELLATE BOARD 31. Appeals to the Appellate Board. 32. Bar of jurisdiction of courts, etc. 33. Procedure of the Appellate Board. 34. Procedure for application for rectification, etc., before Appellate Board. 35. Appearance of Registrar in legal proceedings. 36. Costs of Registrar in proceedings before Appellate Board. CHAPTER VIII OFFENCES, PENALTIES AND PROCEDURE 37. Meaning of applying geographical indications. 38. Falsifying and falsely applying geographical indications. 39. Penalty for applying false geographical indications. 40. Penalty for selling goods to which false geographical indication is applied. 41. Enhanced penalty on second or subsequent conviction. 42. Penalty for falsely representing a geographical indication as registered. 43. Penalty for improperly describing a place of business as connected with the Geographical Indications Registry. 44. Penalty for falsification of entries in the register. 45. No offence in certain cases. 46. Forfeiture of goods. 47. Exemption of certain persons employed in ordinary course of business. 48. Procedure where invalidity of registration is pleaded by the accused. 49. Offences by companies. 50. Cognizance of certain offences and the powers of police officer for search and seizure. 51. Costs of defence of prosecution. 52. Limitation of prosecution. 53. Information as to commission of offence. 54. Punishment for abetement in India of acts done out of India. 2 CHAPTER IX MISCELLANEOUS SECTIONS 55. Protection of action taken in good faith. 56. Certain persons to be public servants. 57. Stay of proceedings where the validity of registration of the geographical indication is questioned etc. 58. Application for rectification of register to be made to Appellate Board in certain cases. 59. Implied warranty on sale of indicated goods. 60. Powers of Registrar. 61. Exercise of discretionary power by Registrar. 62. Evidence before Registrar. 63. Death of party to a proceeding. 64. Extension of time. 65. Abandonment. 66. Suit for infringement, etc., to be instituted before district court. 67. Relief in suit for infringement or for passing off. 68. Authorised user to be impleaded in certain proceedings. 69. Evidence of entries in register, etc., and things done by the Registrar. 70. Registrar and other officers not compellable to produce register, etc. 71. Power to require goods to show indication of origin. 72. Certificate of validity. 73. Groundless threats of legal proceedings. 74. Address for service. 75. Trade usages, etc., to be taken into consideration. 76. Agents. 77. Indexes. 78. Documents open to public inspection. 79. Reports of Registrar to be placed before Parliament. 80. Fees and surcharge. 81. Savings in respect of certain matters in Chapter VIII. 82. Declaration as to title of geographical indication not registrable under the Registration Act, 1908. 83. Government to be bound. 84. Special provisions relating to applications for registration from citizens of convention countries. 85. Provision as to reciprocity. 86. Powers of Central Government to remove difficulties. 87. Power to make rules. 3 THE GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS OF GOODS (REGISTRATION AND PROTECTION) ACT, 1999 ACT NO. 48 OF 1999 [30th December, 1999.] An Act to provide for the registration and better protection of geographical indications relating to goods. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fiftieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:— CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY 1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. (2) It extends to the whole of India. (3) It shall come into force on such date1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act, and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision. 2. Definitions and interpretation.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— (a) “Appellate Board” means the Appellate Board established under section 83 of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (47 of 1999); (b) “authorised user” means the authorised user of a geographical indication registered under section 17; (c) “deceptively similar” A geographical indication shall be deemed to be deceptively similar to another geographical indication if it so nearly resembles that other geographical indication as to be likely to deceive or cause confusion; (d) “district court” has the meaning assigned to it in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908); (e) “geographical indication”, in relation to goods, means an indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured goods as originating, or manufactured in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of such goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin and in case where such goods are manufactured goods one of the activities of either the production or of processing or preparation of the goods concerned takes place in such territory, region or locality, as the case may be. Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, any name which is not the name of a country, region or locality of that country shall also be considered as the geographical indication if it relates to a specific geographical area and is used upon or in relation to particular goods originating from that country, region or locality, as the case may be; (f) “goods” means any agricultural, natural or manufactured goods or any goods of handicraft or of industry and includes food stuff; (g) “indication” includes any name, geographical or figurative representation or any combination of them conveying or suggesting the geographical origin of goods to which it applies; (h) “name” includes any abbreviation of a name; 1. 15th September, 2003, vide notification No. S.O. 1051(E), dated 15th September, 2003, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, sec. 3(ii). 4 (i) “package” includes any case, box, container, covering, folder, receptacle, vessel, casket, bottle, wrapper, label, band, ticket, reel, frame, capsule, cap, lid, stopper and cork; (j) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (k) “producer”, in relation to goods, means any person who,— (i) if such goods are agricultural goods, produces the goods and includes the person who processes or packages such goods; (ii) if such goods are natural goods, exploits the goods; (iii) if such goods are handicraft or industrial goods, makes or manufactures the goods, and includes any person who trades or deals in such production, exploitation, making or manufacturing, as the case may be, of the goods; (l) “register” means the Register of Geographical Indications referred to in section 6; (m) “registered” (with its grammatical variations) means registered under this Act; (n) “registered proprietor”, in relation to a geographical indication, means any association of persons or of producers or any organisation for the time being entered in the register as proprietor of the geographical indication; (o) “Registrar” means the Registrar of Geographical Indications referred to in section 3; (p) “tribunal” means the Registrar or, as the case may be, the Appellate Board before which the proceeding concerned is pending. (2) Words and expressions used and not defined in this Act but defined in the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (47 of 1999) shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act. (3) In this