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Intellectual property and Geographical Indications

Intellectual property: patents and the law on what may be patented, copyright, trademarks and designs, Geographical Indications, traditional knowledge, plant varieties and the trade rules that govern them. Prelims has asked which products hold Geographical Indication tags and why India enacted the Geographical Indications Act.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2019: the Intellectual Property Appellate Board and plant variety protection

All 2 subjects shown; the 0 that changed from 16 to 31 July 2026 are marked.Show only these

Geographical Indications

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Prelims and Mains

A Geographical Indication (GI) is registered to a region rather than to a firm, so a producers' body or a market committee holds it rather than any one grower. That makes the tag collective property, and whoever is written into the register decides who may lawfully sell under it.

  • An application may be opposed within three months of its advertisement under the Act.
  • India has 724 registered GIs, and only 42 per cent of them have any authorised user at all.
  • The Intellectual Property Appellate Board was abolished in 2021, so GI disputes now go to slow civil courts.
  • About 40 million kg of counterfeit Darjeeling tea is sold worldwide, roughly ten times actual production.
  • Only 10 to 15 per cent of the price premium a GI earns reaches farmers.

What changed

  1. 11 Aug 2026

    Indian Express, 11 Aug 2026: To protect farmers and their produce, India's GI tag needs reform (opens in a new tab)

  2. 11 Aug 2026

    • In early 2026 the GI tags for Unjha jeera (cumin) and saunf (fennel) went to a market committee in Gujarat.
    • Cumin growers in Rajasthan say language and access barriers kept them from objecting in time.
    • An August column argued that the regime protects the place but not the producer, and proposed state enforcement cells, online monitoring and producer collectives.

    Indian Express, 11 Aug 2026: To protect farmers and their produce, India's GI tag needs reform (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2018: why India enacted the Geographical Indications Act, 1999
  • Prelims 2015: which products hold Geographical Indication status

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library

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Prelims and Mains

Set up in 2001 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research with the Ministry of AYUSH, the library holds over 5.2 lakh formulations from Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Yoga, translated so that foreign patent examiners can read them. It protects defensively, by documenting prior art so that patents are refused.

What changed

  1. 10 Jul 2026New subject

    • IP Australia gained access, the eighteenth patent office to do so.

    PIB, 10 Jul 2026: India and Australia Sign Agreement on Access to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (CSIR-TKDL) to Strengthen Protection of Traditional Knowledge (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere