GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION: PATH TO GLOCAL MARKETS VIA GENERIC BRANDING Dr. JYOTIRMOY MAZUMDER, Head of BBA(H), Tarakeswar Degree College, Tarakeswar, Hooghly, West Bengal, India; email : [email protected]; Mobile – 9474041650. Abstract The success of any consumer product lies upon its value as brand, whether generic or specific. Recent development through Geographical Indication (GI) is a method to procure & promote local products, especially from local artisans or SMEs, to the global/local markets by ensuring quality or features of these products. Both foreign and indigenous products can be GI tagged now in India, which enhance the chances of recognition and decrease competition/imitation of fake products. Brand value or equity is achieved through this though it uplifts the task of maintaining international standards. Increasing demand for applying to GI indicates that the non-IPR segments can be protected through this root and sellers should focus on socio-economic segments to provide generic brand and customized value to grow in a market. Keyword: Geographical Indication, Generic, Brand, Product, Market. 1. INTRODUCTION “Darjeeling”, “Champagne”, “Assam”, “Cognac”, “Banaras”, “Tequila” – these are some well- known names which are associated throughout the world with products of a certain nature and quality. One common feature of all those names is their geographical connotation, or, their function of designating existing places, towns, regions or countries. These examples show that geographical indications can acquire very high reputation and may become commercial assets. A geographical indication (GI) is a name/sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a place, town, region, or country). Though GI generally consist of geographical names “direct indications”, they may also be based on non- geographical names or symbols, if perceived by the public as identifying certain geographical origin which are generally called “indirect geographical indications”. GIs have been defined under Article 22(1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement as: "Indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or a locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographic origin." The GI tag ensures that none other than those registered as authorized users (or at least those residing inside the geographic territory) are allowed to use the popular product name. The concept of GI comes from the concept of “Country of Origin” or a regional or sub regional geographic origin. Consumers use geographic origin image as an extrinsic cue for offerings for which they lack product specific information. Products that have achieved a high degree of geographic origin image include German or Japanese automobiles & consumer electronics, French cosmetics and perfumes, Swiss watches etc. Communal premium pricing idea has helped many food/beverage and other commoditized products such as German beers, French or Italian wines and cheeses, Spanish Sherry, Swiss chocolates, Chinese tea & silk and Holland bulbs. The source of the product enables the consumer to identify the product that best caters to a range of personal expectations about quality and characteristics, which in turn may derive from previous experience, advertising or even the recommendations. This superior quality either resulted from natural geographic advantages, such as climate and geology (e.g., Seville oranges, Kentish hops, Burgundy wine); recipes and food processing techniques, local to a region (e.g., Kyoto bean cakes, Malmesbury mead, Frankfurter Sausages) or indigenous manufacturing skills (e.g., Toledo Steel, Delft Ceramic Ware, Korean Celadon ware). Protection from counterfeiting/forgery is also highly desirable. A number of treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) provide for the protection of geographical indications. The World Trade Organization (WTO) panel in European Communities–Geographical Indications affirmed the principle of co-existence of trademarks and GIs that characterizes the European system of protection. Thereby, under the EC regulation, the prior existence of a conflicting trademark does not prevent registration of a GI. In the USA, GI are protected under the US Trade Marks Act as ‘trademarks’, ‘collective marks’, or ‘certification marks’. Particularly on ‘extension’ of acceptable GI products (Article 23), beyond primary products wine/liquor or cheese, one can find developing countries joining hands with developed countries either as demanders or opponents, depending on their respective stakes in GIs. Generic Brand: A generic brand is a type of consumer product that lacks a widely recognized name or logo because it isn't normally advertised. Generic brands are usually less expensive than brand-name products due to their absence in promotion, which can inflate the cost of goods or service. Generic brands are designed to be substitutes for more expensive brand-name. These are especially common in supermarket goods. A variation of a generic brand is a private label brand (also "store brand," "own brand," or "private brand"), in which an item carries the brand of a store. The WIPO is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world". WIPO currently has 192 member states, administers 26 international treaties (by end 2019). As per WIPO Global Brand Database, there are 20156519 active brands & 2703042 number of pending to be brand names present (17749592 brands are already inactive) worldwide (as on 31/01/2020). Country of origin wise, USA has the most among them, 10179390; South Korea is 2nd with 3745850 & France is 3rd with 2988600 such brands. Other countries with one million plus brand names are Japan, Germany, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Italy & Spain (EU also). India has a mere 1298 registered brand names as per this data by then. Table 1 – List of GIs in force for selected national/regional authorities by December’18 National_Regional_Authority GI_in_force (numbers) China 7,247 European Union 4,968 Republic of Moldova 4,732 Bosnia and Herzegovina 4,499 Georgia 4,426 Armenia 3,228 Ukraine 3,115 Australia 2,064 Mexico 1,687 Viet Nam 1,130 Costa Rica 1,121 Peru 1,072 Serbia 1,020 Cuba 1,001 Israel 1,000 Canada 835 U.S. 779 Turkey 398 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 385 India 330 Source: WIPO Statistics Database, August 2019. Data received from the 92 national/regional authorities that shared their 2018 data with WIPO reveals that 65,900 protected GIs are in existence. GIs in force relating to “wines and spirits” accounted for 51.1% of the 2018 total, followed by agricultural products and foodstuffs (29.9%). Handicrafts accounted for 2.7% of the total. China, Hungary, India and Vietnam each had more than 100 GIs for handicrafts in force within their jurisdictions in 2018. Indications relating to services amounted to 34 GIs in 2018, mainly in the USA (17 GIs) and Vietnam (12 GIs). Generic terms cannot be protected as GI. GI can become generic if it has become associated with products to such an extent that it goes to mean the product itself and lost its ability to identify where the goods have originated from. E.g., French fries or Bermuda shorts. GIs in India: India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 into force with effect from 15 September 2003. Darjeeling tea became the first GI tagged product in India, in 2004-05. An online platform to sale GI products of India, named Geographical Indications Tagged World Premium Products Pvt Ltd or GiTAGGED, was first launched in 2016, which later also opened a privately owned GI store in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout area in May 2018. In January 2019, India’s first state run exclusive GI Store was opened at Goa International Airport in Dabolim. Table 2 – List of some famous Indian GI tagged products Sl. No. Name of GI Type State 1 Darjeeling Tea Agricultural West Bengal 2 Assam Orthodox Tea Agricultural Assam 3 Kancheepuram Silk Handicraft Tamil Nadu 4 Nagpur Orange Agricultural Maharashtra 5 Kashmir Pashmina Handicraft Jammu & Kashmir 6 Alphonso Mango Agricultural Maharashtra 7 Lucknow Chikan Craft Handicraft Uttar Pradesh 8 Feni Manufactured Goa 9 Malihabadi Dusseheri Mango Agricultural Uttar Pradesh 10 Bikaneri Bhujia Agricultural Rajasthan 11 Hyderabadi Haleem Foodstuff Telangana 12 Nashik Grapes Agricultural Maharashtra 13 Bomkai Saree & Fabrics Handicraft Odisha 14 Lucknow Zardozi Handicraft Uttar Pradesh 15 Banaras Brocades and Saree Handicraft Uttar Pradesh Source: http://ipindia.nic.in/girindia/ There are 21 items from West Bengal with the GI tag out of total 361 granted in India up to March 2020 (since 2004-05). They are – Darjeeling tea (word & logo), Nakshi Kantha, Banglar Patachitra, Santiniketan leather goods, Laxmanbhog mango, Fazli mango, Himsagar mango, Santipore saree, Baluchari saree, Dhaniakhali saree, Joynagar moa, Gobindobhog rice, Tulaipanji rice, Bardhaman Sitabhog, Bardhaman Mihidana, Banglar Rosogolla, Bankura- Panchmura Terracotta craft, Bengal Dokra, Chau mask, Kushmandi mask, Madurkathi. Other items like Krishnanagar Sarpuria, Krishnanagar Sarbhaja, Kolkatti gold, dry sweet Sandes etc. are yet to get tag or