Getting the stamp of geographical indication is easy. Leveraging it isn’t, says the movement’s driver in India.
Set amid leafy residential buildings in a quiet inner lane of Begumpet in the state capital, the Andhra Pradesh Technology Development & Promotion Centre (APTDC) hardly looks a pioneer in intellectual property (IP) rights facilitation. But it is. And the face behind it – Principal Counsellor and Head K Subodh Kumar – is relentlessly putting Indian products on the global map.
A postgraduate in chemical technology from IIT-Madras and a diploma-holder in patent law from Nalsar University in Hyderabad, Kumar has headed APTDC from June 2001, after a 15-year stint in industry. “In 1999, the IP rights cell in AP was a visionary model. Now, almost all states either have or are establishing such cells,” says Kumar.
APTDC is an autonomous society formed in 1999 by the Confederation of Indian Industry with the Andhra Pradesh government and the department of science & technology’s Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council. It has been the force behind several Indian products receiving coveted geographical indication (GI) recognition. These include Pochampalli Ikat handloom silk sarees made in Nalgonda district of AP, one of the earliest to be listed in the GI registry, in December 2004.
Recently, the state’s Pembarthi metal craft, noted for its exquisite handcrafted brassware, received GI registration – the fourth product from the state since April and 17th since the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act came into force in 2003.
GI is a sort of IP right granted to a product that has a specific geographic origin and possesses qualities or a reputation linked to it. “Here, it is more about development and focus is on the larger good of society. The job profile requires working closely with societal needs,” says Kumar, explaining the reasons for his long association with APTDC and his involvement in facilitating GI recognition for well-known products in the state.
So far, 143 products from across the country have found a place in the GI registry, with 81 applications under consideration. Of the products registered, 92 are handicrafts, followed by agricultural products (38), manufactured goods (10) and foodstuffs (3). This is in sharp contrast to Europe, where a bulk of GI-recognised products is natural or agricultural.
Though AP is among the first few states to obtain GI recognition for traditional products, Karnataka has the largest number of GI registered products at 28, followed by Tamil Nadu with 18. According to Kumar, soon after the enactment of GI legislation, applications were filed for three products: Darjeeling Tea (West Bengal), Pochampalli Ikat (AP) and Aranmula Kannadi mirror work (Kerala). “Darjeeling Tea was the first to get GI certification. That is an agricultural product. In traditional art, Pochampalli Ikat is the first product to get GI recognition,” he says.
Kumar, however, points out that “GI is not the answer to everything”. He adds that it is also not the sole activity of APTDC. “We have a range of IP-related activities, including building awareness, helping individual innovators file for IP protection, creating awareness among consumers about GI, helping post-GI with brand-building, designing logos, etc.”
AP’s IP facilitation centre was itself a big step, says Kumar. CII Senior Director Anjan Das was the head of the council when it started. BP Acharya, who was industries secretary in the AP government at the time, was the main force behind setting up the IP facilitation cell as part of the Genome Valley Project, a biotechnology cluster.
APTDC has worked with states like Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and also for some Mysore products, according to Kumar. “We will open two similar IP cells in Mysore and Indore, in addition to the currently functioning ones in Hyderabad and Chennai. The government, through the ministry of MSME, has allocated Rs 50 crore to each state to establish IP facilitation centres,” he adds.
The IP cell works on a pro bono basis, providing help with documentation, testing, infrastructure and legal advice. “Our working model is networking institutional assistance with law firms, banks, technology providers, etc. For some products, we have worked with the handlooms department, National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development and legal services firm Anand & Anand. We are reimbursed by the relevant government department or Nabard,” says Kumar.
How has GI recognition changed things for the products? “To quantify the impact of GI recognition is not the right way to look at things,” says Kumar. “IP protection is only 10 per cent of the work; 90 per cent is to make use of GI recognition in the market. But that process has not started. GI is a legal tool, which needs to be utilised and that takes more effort and resources. Stakeholders have to take the lead in this.”
Kumar says that in Europe, GI is a stamp of uniqueness. It is a sort of guarantee of quality, and that is what helps in leveraging the tag commercially. “It started as an appellation of origin and evolved into GI. Europe is very stringent and advanced in its processes,” he says. In Europe, the GI focus has been more on food products or wines, like Champagne and Scotch whisky, which are unique to that part of the world. “In AP, we focus more on products of human skill.”
| GI-registered products from Andhra Pradesh | |
| Pochampalli ikat | Handicrafts |
| Srikalahasthi kalamkari | Handicrafts |
| Kondapalli Bommalu | Handicrafts |
| Silver filigree of Karimnagar | Handicrafts |
| Budiiti bell & brass craft | Handicrafts |
| Nirmal furniture | Handicrafts |
| Nirmal paintings | Handicrafts |
| Andhra Pradesh leather puppetry | Handicrafts |
| Uppada Jamdani sarees | Handicrafts |
| Tirupati laddu | Foodstuff |
| Nirmal toys & craft | Handicrafts |
| Machilipatnam kalamkari | Handicrafts |
| Guntur Sannam chilli | Agricultural |
| Gadwal sarees | Handicrafts |
| Hyderabad haleem | Foodstuff |
| Cheriyal paintings | Handicrafts |
| Pembarthi metal craft | Handicrafts |
Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain account for a bulk of GIs. It takes seven to eight years from application to registration of a GI, while for APTDC it took between 10 months and two-and-a-half years to obtain GI registration. On average, it costs Rs 1.1 lakh for each application, says Kumar. Going forward, Kumar says, “We are looking at post-GI intervention to develop clusters, provide marketing support and brand building.”
There is still a long way to go, he adds, particularly in the areas of quality standardisation, product branding, creating market linkages, and raising financial resources. The support structure has to be something like a private-public partnership, with efforts from national- and state-level governments, stakeholders and private players. Without it, GI certification has not made a significant change to the makers of the registered products.
Kumar, however, is hopeful that things will improve. “In another five years, producers can expect to cash in on the benefits of GI,” he says, emphasising, “A GI tag is much more than a trademark. It is a symbol of quality.”
