A Geographical Indication is an indication that is used to identify agricultural, natural or manufactured goods originating from a definite geographical territory having a special quality or reputation or other characteristics. The manufactured goods should be produced or processed or prepared in that territory. Geographical Indications encompasses what is known as Appellation of Origin. An Appellation of Origin is a special kind of Geographical Indication used on products that have a specific quality that is exclusively or essentially due to the geographical environment in which the products are produced.

Geographical Indications (GIs) can be best explained by referring to some of the world famous GIs (Indian examples) like the Basmati Rice, Kanchipuram Silk, Darjeeling Tea, Alphanso Mango, Nagpur Orange, Kolhapuri Chappal and Bikaneri Bhujia. The well-known GIs include the Scotch Whiskey, Chinese Silk and the Venetian Glass. IDAHO for potatoes, WASHINGTON STATE for apples and FLORIDA for oranges are some of the Geographical Indications of the United States.

There are multitudinous reasons that strongly mandate the protection of GI’s. In modern free trade economies, GIs have enormous economic value as the consumers are wiling to pay high prices for goods bearing a particular quality. It is important to protect the consumers from spurious products and producers from unfair competition. Besides the commercial aspect, the GIs also protect the usurpation of the national heritage of a country by associating a product world wide with a particular country. As the quality of product is not only attributable to the climate, topography but also to the know-how of the producers of the region, the GIs are also important tools for protecting the traditional knowledge of the producers.

Geographical indications have been protected under the Trademark law in many national jurisdictions. Even though both the GIs and Trademark are source identifiers, there are many differences between the two. Whereas Trademark identifies the products with the manufacturer, the GI identify products with the place of production or origin. Another important difference is that the GIs are the community rights whereas the trademark is individual right. As regards the use, the Trademark can assigned as well as licensed, but a Geographical indication cannot be assigned, transmitted or licensed.