How is a design different than a geographical indication?<\/h3>
Go through the difference between GIs and designs under Indian laws:
Basis<\/strong>
Geographical Indication
Designs
What Does it Secure?<\/strong>
Geographical Indication: The name and origin of the product
Designs: This IP protects the physical attributes of industrial products.
Who Can Own This?<\/strong>
Geographical Indication: Individuals & legal entities
Designs: Associations
Validity<\/strong>
Geographical Indication: Valid for 10 years and can be renewed for 5 subsequent years
Designs: 10 years and can be indefinitely renewed for another 10 years
Type of Right<\/strong>
Geographical Indication: The owner has exclusive rights like a trademark, copyright, and patent.
Designs: The association has a collective right. Non-transferable.
Legal Protection<\/strong>
Geographical Indication: The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection), 1999
Designs: The Designs Act, 2000
Iconic Examples<\/strong>
Geographical Indication: Basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, and Banarasi saree
Designs: Bottle designs<\/p>What is the Lisbon Agreement?<\/h3>
The Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications is a WIPO-backed protocol that provides international protection to GIs. India has not yet ratified the agreement as of 2025.<\/p>
Are there any landmark disputes concerning Indian GIs?<\/h3>
The list of famous cases on Indian geographical indications is below:
1. Basmati vs RiceTec Inc:
After a long legal dispute, the USPTO revoked Ricetech\u2019s various patent rights, including using \u201cBasmati\u201d to market and sell their rice products.
2. Tea Board India vs ITC Limited 2011 (45) PTC 575 (Cal)
The Hon\u2019ble High Court ruled in favor of ITC Limited, stating that the trademark rights for \u201cDarjeeling\u201d were limited to the production and marketing of tea. The protection didn\u2019t automatically extend to other services, including hotel and lounge services.
3. Tea Board of India vs Darjeeling Nouveau (USA Company)
The Tea Board of India was successful in opposing the registration of the \u201cDarjeeling Nouveau\u201d, stating it already has a registered certification mark in the US.
The same board also successfully opposed several other applications in Japan, Germany, and France.<\/p><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed against the global fashion brand, Prada, for allegedly copying the Geographical Indication (GI) of Kolhapuri Chappals. They supposedly commercialized the Indian GI during an international fashion week, \u201cPrada Men Collection 2026\u201d. The PIL seeks an apology from Prada. It also requests that the Italian MNC provide monetary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":69646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4552],"tags":[],"acf":{"service_id":"0"},"authorName":"Ilma Siddiqua","authorImageUrl":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ilma.png","authorDescription":"Ilma Siddiqua is an environmental professional with 8+ years of healthy experience in Business Compliance MOEF, Tyre Waste, Hazardous Waste, Battery Waste, AVSF, EPR, State Pollution Control Board, etc. Penning words give her the utmost pleasure, and that\u2019s why she opted for drafting amazing writeups that move the readers to the core.","postViews":1060,"readingTime":7,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69640"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69647,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69640\/revisions\/69647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}