Duplicate GI products hampering niche market: Textile Min

Admitting instances of duplication of Geographical Indication (GI) registered handloom products, the Textiles Ministry today said the malpractice is hampering the niche market of these products.
"Recently, Ministry of Textiles has received complaints from various handloom associations/unions that duplicate versions of their famous GI registered handloom products are being manufactured by the mechanised sector of the textiles and are sold in the market by some textile marketing companies in the names of GI registered handloom products," the ministry said in a press release.
According to the statement, this is hampering the niche market of these handloom products affecting their goodwill adversely and shrinking their market value due to encroachment on their registered geographical indications.

Handloom Items registered under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection), Act, 1999.
48 important and traditional handloom products are registered under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection), Act, 1999.
The ministry said that the authorised officers of the central and state governments are instructed from time to time to pay special attention to the complaints on faking of G.I. registered handlooms products.
The registered users of G.I. Registered products have rights under the provisions of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection), Act, 1999 to approach respective police authorities to safeguard their interests against such illegal manufacturing/marketing of G.I. registered handloom products.

The ministry said, "an FIR was filed on December 17, 2015 in the Pochampally Police Station, Telangana by the authorised users of the GI registered handloom products of pochampally ikat sarees against the sellers/manufacturers for selling/manufacturing duplicate GI registered product.