IP Lawyer & Founder of SiegeNow
Sweet is something for which we Bengalis crave a lot and the trend to love Bengali food among the non-Bengalis make the sweets of Bengal a wish-for product. Be it, man or woman, we all love sweets after a heavy meal, and love never fades away irrespective of dieting trend. One of the Sweetest item among Bengal’s types of sweets is ‘Rosogolla’ and yesterday when the West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Shrimati Mamata Banerjee tweeted coupled with the news agency’s special coverages on Rosogolla being approved the GI (Geographical Indication) tag, the news seems juicy in everyone’s ears.
Is the GI tag a very new thing?
No, something originated from Bengal having GI tag of course is not a new thing; from Darjelling tea to Joynagar’ s Moya Bengal has wore it’s own glory as an international branded Armour since decades but the Bengalis take special interest when it comes to ‘Bengal’ s Rosogolla‘ especially when it owns the tag after much debate over the issue of taking the credit of first introducing ‘Rosogolla’ – Is it Bengal ‘s Nabin Chandra Das, whose lineage continue in the form of a family run sweatshop chain M/S K. C Das sweets or our neighborhood Orrisa? Now that verdict is out but it does not mean this victory is a defeat of Orrisa as they still have scope of having a GI tag for their own version of Rosogolla, because ‘Bengal ‘s Rosogolla‘ own the tag and not ‘Rosogolla’ as a generic term which the common people needs to understand and interpret correctly.
So what’s the heck is GI (Geographical Indication), From Switzerland’s Gruyère cheese to Mexico’s Tequila, geographical indications and appellations of origin are a common feature of everyday life. They not only provide a way for the business to leverage the value of their geographically unique products but also inform and attract consumers. A geographical indication (GI) is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. In order to function as a GI, a sign must identify a product as originating in a given place. In addition, the qualities, characteristics or reputation of the product should be essentially due to the place of origin. Since the qualities depend on the geographical place of production, there is a clear link between the product and its original place of production. This tag is aware of an International body of Organizations called WIPO(World Intellectual Property Organization) which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
Another significance of this news is its wide scope of educating general masses about this special kind of intellectual property which is mainly owned by a community or society at large.
This country is full of treasure and savoring this sweetest attempts also confirms that our treasure will not be hunted by any other foreign entity and Bengal’s Rosogolla making shall be preserved as a tradition, and shall be traded globally as ‘Made in Bengal’ product.
Jai Bangla 🙂
Source of Information: WIPO (http://wipo.int) & Government of West Bengal.
